Daniil Kharms

A comprehensive, English-language collection of prose and poetry by the late iconoclastic writer offers insight into his considerable achievements during the post-Soviet era as well as his lasting influence in spite of his government's efforts to suppress his work. Reprint.

The Selected Writings of Daniil Kharms

Today I Wrote Nothing

Rowena Wiseman

I loved this book so much, I just fell off my chair. It is absurd and ridiculous in all the right ways and had me laughing at strange moments. There is a mixture of micro fiction (before it became flash fiction), short stories, short plays and poems. The poetry is perhaps the only disappointment, but the plays are great fun, who can't enjoy Pushkin and Gogol tripping over each other ... constantly? Or people just vomiting on stage? It's brilliant silliness.

The story 'The old woman' is a masterpiece - about an old woman who has the audacity to die in the narrator's apartment. 'A terrible feeling of irritation overtakes me. What for did the old woman die in my room? I can't stand dead people...' 

I had other things to say too, but I lost my notes. Enough.

Today I Wrote Nothing The Selected Writings of Daniil Kharms

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