Lev Rubinstein

Chasing Hats and Other Writings

About the author :
Lev Rubinstein has been writing since the late 1960s. In the mid-1970s he began to develop his own literary genre. Borrowing from oral traditions as well as the fine arts and performance art, this could be described as a kind of card-index. Over the years the well-known Moscow poet and essayist has taken part in numerous poetry and music festivals, art exhibitions and other events. Originals and translations of his works were first published in the West in the late 1970s. A decade later, Rubinstein’s works began to appear in Russia.
Lev Rubinstein is a Liberty prize-winner.

He shows exactly how in Russia, be it Soviet or post-Soviet, power - or any other phenomenon, however small - instantly acquires the status of a myth. Growing exponentially, it spawns rituals, archetypes, taboos and divinities. We observed this with Pushkin and the climate, foodstuffs and transport, holidays and travel, cigarettes and alcohol. The market itself is fast becoming sacrosanct, ‘a new idol, to be worshipped fanatically or fanatically fought against.’ Rubinstein knows full well that mythologies do not die – they reproduce themselves through language, social ritual, the symbolic economy. He keeps his distance, labouring under no delusion. Apart from anything else, he himself does not wish to part with all myths.
Mark Lipovetsky

‘…The short essay on coffee (‘The Coffee Cantata’) and the sketch on cinemas present an entire history of the Soviet intellectual’s way of life. They are more informative than a great many accounts of contemporary living, outlook and moral values…
[Rubinstein] shows a perceptive and enquiring approach. His attitude is cheerful and never cynical. Picking up his book, one feels drawn into a pleasant, jovial conversation. He is a good storyteller.’
Nikolai Alexandrov, Izvestiya newspaper