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The Ivan Aufulich Papers
11. Ilya Veyunom (try interpreting this as French)
The All-Union Literature Prize was awarded today to Ilya Veyunom ("Ilya" is the cognate of "Elijah"), biographer of French biographers. This of course is not a tribute to Veyunom, a man of surpassingly modest talents, but rather a slap at last year's winner, Maksim Malseks, and his salacious potboilers, which really means a slap at the American novels he is popularly supposed to imitate. This, in turn, is an indirect strike at all things American, and in particular the deal recently cut by Pyotr Dar Podnar for American electric screwdrivers. The fact that Dar Podnar was the real target, rather than Malseks, was not lost on careful observers, who recognize that Malseks' harshest critic, V. R. Nahtamyuzd, has been reduced to being used as a tool, and hence is no longer a force to be reckoned with in his own right. That can only mean, eventually, relief for the dissident poets in Kazakhstan and a return to better turkey supplies in the Dnieper valley.
©1997 Grant Schampel