Одесские страницы книги Юрия Олеши «Ни дня без строчки»

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the book Not a Day Without a Line by Yuriy Karlovich Olesha. Yuriy Olesha (1899–1960) is a prose writer, a poet, a playwright, and a screenwriter. The writer belonged to the old noble family of the boyard Olesha Petrovich. His ancestors moved from Belarus to Poland where they entered Catholicism. Thus, by the end of the 19th century the Olesha family was one hundred per cent Polish. When he lived in Odessa, in the midst of mainly Orthodox population, Yuriy Olesha was perfectly aware that he was an outsider. In his book he describes his impressions caused by the Easter and makes comparisons between the Catholic and Orthodox holidays. Many pages of Not a Day Without a Line are dedicated to the writer’s childhood memories. He remembered the legend about the brave Polish kings for all his life. Not a Day Without a Line is his personal memories about his family, meetings, plans, and impressions. It is worth mentioning that on their basis we can recreate the image of the city where Yuriy Olesha spent his youth. The colour images and metaphors have an important role to play. But what is important in the writer’s memories, it is, without any doubt, the literary life of Odessa. Tamara Moreva meetings with Bunin, Voloshin, Bagritsky, and Kataev. This is what the book Not a Day Without a Line is dedicated to, being the vivid expression of his love for Odessa, his nearest and dearest, his friends, the sea, the boulevard, and for life.