Usually the “reading field” that is formed by each person around himself forms the person. It would be logical to assume that due to a specific choice in literature and by talking to Shakespeare and Shevchenko through the pages of their books, we can approach those bright minds.
Mykhailo Slaboshpytsky, writer, literary critic:
“I am currently suffering from a flu, which is a chance to catch up on my reading. Right now I am reading a novel Nikolai Hohol by Volodymyr Nabokov, that I kept putting away in a drawer or on a shelf.
“I enjoyed reading since childhood. I was lucky – my father’s pal was a deputy director of the Library of the Academy of Sciences (also called Public Library). He gave me a special pass. Being a student I read things that others did not, such as banned books – Nietzsche, Freud, Schopenhauer, and the Ukrainian Executed Renaissance.
“I have to read a lot of, let us say, professional fiction. Lately these were the articles of Yurii Shcherbak, which, by the way, were published for five years now on the pages of The Day. Now, they are published by the Ukrainskiy Pysmennyk Publishing House. By the way, I am an author of the afterword to this book. I read most of those articles in your paper. And I was impressed (in a positive way). I can now say that it is a grand book! It is about what happened, where we were going and what mistakes we made… Shcherbak has recorded those social and psychological currents without lyricism or emotions. That is how the image of Ukraine appeared, as a plane that got into a zone of turbulence. Hence the title of the book Ukraine in a Zone of Turbulence. It is both philosophical and applied, even prognostic. Writing about today, Yurii is talking about tomorrow the way he sees it. Let us take his articles, written five years ago. We understand that the author’s predictions are coming true. What is also important is that the majority of our questions are party engaged, and Yurii, as a free person, covers them with a feeling of internal freedom. This book is unique! I wish it to have many readers. It would be especially useful if authoritative people read it.
“What I had to read because of my professional duty – the collection of Yuri Shcherbak – brought me much intellectual pleasure.”
