Sonechka is a novella

Novella

A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

 and collection of short stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by Russian writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya

Lyudmila Ulitskaya

Lyudmila Evgenyevna Ulitskaya is a critically acclaimed modern Russian novelist and short-story writer. She was born in the town of Davlekanovo in Bashkiria on February 21, 1943...

. It was originally published in Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 in the literary journal Novy Mir

Novy Mir

Novy Mir is a Russian language literary magazine that has been published in Moscow since January 1925. It was supposed to be modelled on the popular pre-Soviet literary magazine Mir Bozhy , which was published from 1892 to 1906, and its follow-up, Sovremenny Mir , which was published 1906-1917...

in 1992, and translated into English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 by Arch Tait in 2005. Sonechka was nominated for the Russian Booker Prize

Russian Booker Prize

The Russian Booker Prize is a Russian literary award modeled after the Booker Prize and inaugurated in 1992 by English Chief Executive Sir Michael Caine...

.

Plot Summary

Sonechka is a novella that relates the life story of booklover Sonya. Sonechka spends all her youth immersed in the world of literature, living her life through the characters of Russian Literature. One day, when Sonechka is working at the local library, a man called Robert Vitorovich comes searching for a certain ensemble of French books. This 50 year old man, part of the intelligentsia, returns 3 days later and abruptly proposes matrimony to Sonechka. She accepts and embarks on her new life with her husband. She lives a quite happy life moving around Russia with her husband and her daughter Tanya. Eventually, the family settles in the Montmatre of Moscow. There, Sonechka’s husband gets a studio to work on his paintings and Tanya tumbles around in her studies and distances herself from her mother. However, when her teenage daughter Tanya enters the afternoon classes a new friend, Jasia, enters the life of the family. Jasia, a beautiful Polish girl, charms Tanya, as well as Robert. One Christmas Jasia and Robert start an affair. In spite of this, Sonechka sees the girl as a fragile individual, who becomes the daughter that Sonechka always dreamed of. Suddendly, one day, Robert has a heart attack and dies, leaving Sonechla and Jasia alone. Sonechka arranges all the preparations for the funeral and takes care of Jasia. By the end of the story, Sonechka returns to the reading of her loved Literature, eventually receiving news of her two daughters: Tanya who is St. Petersburg; and Jasia who married an European aristocrat.

Characters in Sonechka

• Sonechka — protagonist of the novella, an introverted, book-loving librarian who meets her husband, Robert on the job — once married she transforms into a domestic goddess who showers her family with limitless love, patience, and understanding.

• Robert Victorovich — well known artist and husband of Sonechka — quite prolific, intellectual, and very popular in the creative community, but unfaithful and often condescending to his wife.

• Tanya — self-absorbed daughter of Sonechka and Robert and friend of Jasia who takes after her father —she has a knack for enchanting suitors and dabbling in arts, despite leading a generally vacuous existence.

• Jasia — an orphaned polish girl whose personality adapts to survive the harsh events of her life — utilizes her sexuality to manipulate others and/or survive. She is Tanya's friend and Robert's mistress.

Major Themes

• Family
• Abstraction from reality
• Arbitrariness of life
• The Intellectual/Creative Lifestyle - Sonechka is based on a known situational construct that brings together a mismatched family, including a creative's wife and his mistress, to live together harmoniously. The unexpected combination of characters manage to coexist by allowing their most admirable traits--wisdom, patience, and will power--to motivate their actions.
• Female Perspective - The novella offers insight into the minds of three strong, female characters, their relationships with Robert, and their relationships with each other. Sonechka's devotion to her family and role as a domesticated woman become central to plot development. Ulitskaya uses unembellished prose to uniquely highlight the inner workings of the female mind and to evoke a new type of discourse about national and gender identity.
• Psychoanalytical Context - The three main female characters in the novella, Tanya, Jasia, and Sonechka could represent the psychoanalytical ideas of the id, ego, and super ego. Tanya’s selfish behavior throughout the story clearly parallels that of the unrestrained id. Jasia creates balance in her life by juggling her dream to be an actress in order to please herself with her drive to please others, thus earning her the label of ego. Lastly, Sonechka’s utter devotion to her domestic duties at the expensive of her own needs embodies the superego and completes the three-pronged structure of the psyche.

Literary Significance

Ludmila Ulitskaya gives us a novel that is distinctly Russian and a part of the growing literary tradition in Russia of works somewhere between pop culture and intellectual literature.
The novella was well-received just shortly after its initial release.
"Sonechka" was nominated for the Russian Booker Prize in 2005.

Developmental History

Sonechka is an early work of Ulitskaya's. It was published in 1992 in the journal Novyi mir (New World) after the author had written literature based on Jewish life and her own childhood experiences.

Explanation of the novel's Title

The novel is named after the main character, Sonechka. Sonechka, Sonya or Sofia means wisdom.

External Links

• Words Without Boarders Short biography of author
• Meaning-of-Names Meaning of the name Sonechka
• The Man Booker Prize Ulitskaya's Man Booker Prize page
• Sonechka on Amazon.com Sonechka for sale
• Elkost Ulitskaya's Elkost author profile