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Jurij Galperin. Play Blues. Therese Madeleine Rollier, tr. Zurich. Ammann. 1994. 212 pages. DM 38.
First appearing as Igraem bliuz in 1983 in the Paris emigre tamizdat network, Play Blues represents a budding young author's nostalgic portrayal of his neudachnik (loser) father. Set in St. Petersburg during the 1960s and 1970s, the novel catapults today's readers back to a time when the city bore the curious name of Leningrad and music itself was hostage to the caprice of government authorities. But the young author, his father, and friends successfully ignore the cultural taboos. They never speak of the invisible barriers yet seem to accept them as just one of a number of life's challenges to be overcome.
The father, a war veteran and talented saxophonist, walks away from a comfortable orchestra position when his son (the author) is born. At the same time he begins to devote his life passionately to spontaneity and feeling,...