Literature & Literary Studies
October 2016
Lexicon of Intimate Cities
by Yurii Andrukhovych
"Lexicon of Intimate Cities" is the biggest novel of Yuriy Andruhovych so far. A tireless traveler across Ukraine, Europe, and America, the author tells us 111 stories about 111 cities with which he was lucky enough to experience happy and not so happy, but always intimate, in the broadest sense of the word, moments.Arranged in the alphabetical order according to the geographical names of the locations, these diverse texts – from essays and short stories to prose poems together form an autobiographical atlas of the writer's world. In addition, each "lexical" adventure is clearly inscribed in time space coordinates, which allows the reader to follow the author in 111 private-historical leaps from the mid-60s of the last century to the present day.It is hardly worth expecting objective characteristics of Kyiv and Lviv, Moscow and Warsaw, New York and Yenakiyiv from this atlas, this extremely subjective "manual of geopoetics and cosmopolitics". But you can definitely find more artistically important things in it: the atmosphere, mood, images, smells and tastes of favorite cities and places, as they were imprinted in the author's memory. As well as momentary observations and deeper reflections, lyricism and sadness, irony and sarcasm - that is, everything that makes our communication with the world to resemble true intimacy.
