The Return of the Firebird: Evgeny Plushenko, an Image of the New Russia (Tuncay)

The Return of the Firebird: Evgeny Plushenko, an Image of the New Russia - Vildan Bahar Tuncay

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, very young well-off university men who indulged in "poetical effusions" could get them published with subscriptions from indulgent and equally well-off friends. I have read some of this innocently awful rubbish.

 

Innocently awful rubbish is also how I would describe this self-published fan biography of Evgeny Plushenko. Mercifully slight, it is the product of someone for whom English is clearly not the first language, and whose style has been further corrupted by academia. There are a few minor insights, though they are likely born of reading rather than experience; I think Ms Tuncay is likely correct in linking Plushenko's arrogance and flamboyance to the rapid emergence of materialistic culture in post-glasnost Russia generally, for instance. Not ever having been a fan of Plushenko - I found him technically gifted, but without any sort of interpretive merit, and repulsively narcissistic - I am not inclined to forgive the faults of the writer (and the non-existent proofreader) for the sake of the subject.

 

Plushenko fans may want the book to complete their collections, particularly since there is so little written about him in English; I cannot otherwise recommend it at all.