Zapiski Larionova

Staryy Aleksandr L'vovich Larionov, 'malodushnyy pomeshchik' i byvshiy ofitser vremyon Arakcheeva, diktuet doktoru svoi 'tetradi' - istoriyu zhizni, okhvatyvayushchuyu pochti ves' XIX vek. V ego sud'be uzhivayutsya siyayushchee detstvo v simbirskoy usad'be, surovaya uchyoba v kadetskom korpuse, sluzhba pri dvore, uchastie v voynakh, chinovnich'ya rutina i tikhie gody v snegakh Baryshenskogo uezda. Larionov nazyvaet sebya ryadovym memuaristom, odnako za ego staromodnym pocherkom slyshny vse golosa epokhi: Pushkin i dekabristy, pushechnyy grom 1812-go, teni krepostnykh dvorov, pervye parokhody i telegrafy, izmenchivaya geografiya imperii. Mikhail Shishkin stroit roman kak mnogosloynuyu partiture: klassicheskiy istoricheskiy syuzhet peresekaetsya s psikhologicheskoy prozoy, pastishi yazykov Karamzina i Gogolya perelivayutsya sovremennoy intonatsiey, a bytovye detali sosedstvuyut s razdum'yami o vremeni, pamyati i neizbezhnosti smerti ('omnes una manet nox'). 'Zapiski Larionova' soedinyayut tochnost' filologa s muzykoy prozy Shishkina, prevrashchaya chastnuyu ispoved' v epos o tom, kak chelovek, yazyk i strana ishchut smysl sredi treshchin istorii.