Alphabet of Masks

209 Pages·2011·0.71 MB·English

by  Dmitri Birman

Enigma Books

Also published by Enigma Books

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Alphabet of
Masks
Short Stories and Poetry

Dmitri Birman

Translated by
Antonina W. Bouis and Bela Shayevich

Enigma Books
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of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the
product of the author‘s imagination or are used fictitiously and
any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses,
companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States by
Enigma Books
New York
www.enigmabooks.com

Copyright © 2011 by Dmitri Birman

Translated by
Antonina W. Bouis and Bela Shayevich

First U.S. Edition

ISBN 978-1-936274-35-2
e-ISBN 978-1-936274-36-9

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication CIP
available upon request.
Introduction

Alphabet of Masks, a collection of short stories and
poems written on his mobile phone, paints a picture
of the life of a busy and sensitive man, dealing with
wives, girlfriends, travel, and colleagues and reminis-
cing about lost loves, lost illusions, and lost parents. It
is an imaginative foray into the modern-day Russian
experience. With Birman as guide, we see how today‘s
Russians straddle their Soviet past and their capitalist
future in order to survive—from A to Z.
The stories are wry, humorous, and sexually frank,
the poems lyrical and elegiac. While not necessarily
autobiographical, Birman‘s book tells the life story of
the narrator and his friends. The anti-Semitic reality
of school bullies and army conscription, the adoles-
cent yearning for classmates and teaching assistants,
viii Introduction
the Soviet dream of world travel and luxury con-
sumption are all deftly drawn in stories no more than
a page or two in length; the poetry resonates with the
texts, variations on a theme.
Dmitri Birman‘s stories are not set in Moscow or
St. Petersburg, the two capitals of Russia. His
characters live in a smaller city, more typical of the
rest of the country. One of the funniest stories,
―Fashion Plate,‖ is about a young narrator trying to
organize his wedding reception at the city‘s most posh
restaurant. His father thinks it a good idea to let the
young man try his hand at making arrangements and
networking—in Soviet times whom you knew was
more important than money. The politics are local, as
we see in the story, ―Actor,‖ when the narrator goes
stumping for votes in the slums in new elections. The
residents interact with the ―big city‖—for example,
the narrator in ―Road‖ drives there frequently to
deliver bribes from his boss. The business life is
active, there are office parties (―Barbie‖) and deals to
be made with European distributers (―Toilet‖).
Introduction ix

Several stories depict the casual anti-Semitism of
provincial Russian life, especially in Soviet times.
―Choice‖ reveals the dilemma faced by Russians of
Jewish extraction who were able to leave the USSR
but did not feel Jewish and wanted to live in Russia.
―Jews‖ is about a school friend who looks Jewish and
comes to empathize with his Jewish friends when he
is subjected to the same kind of hazing they face on a
daily basis. In ―X-emption‖ the main character
stubbornly demands that his draft deferment papers
list his ethnicity as Jewish, not Russian, when most
Jews tried to pass for Russian, in order to have prefer-
ential treatment in college admissions and so on.
Animals play a large part in the stories. There are
obnoxious cats (―Kitty‖), huge slobbering and
defecating dogs (―Grin‖), and small annoying dogs
(―Yorkshire Terrier‖). There‘s even a poodle running
across a road and creating an opportunity for two
drivers to meet and fall in love (―Unexpected‖).
Sex plays an even greater part. There are jealous
husbands (―Manias‖), unfaithful lovers, gentle
lotharios (―Questions‖), and a comparison of Russian