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Maria Stepanova: ФОКУС (The Disappearing Act ))
In my review of Stepanova’s In Memory of Memory I commented This book has been marketed as a memoir or a documentary novel and, I suppose, it could be considered both. It is narrated by the author herself. . This also very much applies to this work. If you can read Cyrillic, you will note that the the Russian title is Focus. Why the two different titles`? I have no idea. Neither seems particularly relevant.
There are various types of novels that I prefer, including ones with a really good story, those with lots of good ideas and those with a postmodern twist to them. I also enjoy those novels which reount a journey and, on the journey, narrator discusses the various problems they encounter which can occur in any modern travel and which involves ithe narrator telling us about their reactions, but also their life, their feelings, and generally about thoughts on many subjects.
This book is recounted by a woman who calls herself M, the novelist. She lives in the capital city of a foreign country and comes from another country. It is clear that it is our author who lives in Berlin and fled from Russia because of her criticism of the invasion of Ukraine. She now refers to Putin and Putin’s Russia simply as The Beast. The book recounts her travel to a neighbouring country, which given Germany has a lot of neighbours it is not clear which country she is going to. Inevitably there are problems which any modern day traveller will recognise.
She had a ticket and a seat reservation and was confidently expecting to arrive at her destination and on this train or on another. Of course she does not. When she arrives at her first destination, she finds that the connecting train has been cancelled, allegedly because of a strike, and there is no alternative. Initially she plans to explore the city she has visited by accident then contacts the organisers of the conference and they suggest that she can take a slow train to her destination where she will be met by a taxi driver who will take her to the conference. However on arrival she has difficulty finding a taxi driver when she finds what she thinks is the appropriate taxi driver he does not know where he’s supposed to take her to and just takes her to the town. She finds a hotel and checks in, but cannot contact the organisers to find where she should be as her phone has run out of charge and she does not have a charger.
She wanders around the town and finds that there is a circus there. It appears that the circus is having problems as a key person has died and she volunteers to be a participant.
All the while she has been telling us her story, giving us her thoughts and views on a variety of topics and has been ruminating on the Beast. Why did M’s every thought, every memory, inevitably and rapidly lead her to think about the beast and its workings? she also comments on people asking her about the beast and why, for example he has not been assassinated and hints that M and people like her should’ve done something about this.
But it is not all about theBeast. She tells us a story about an unnamed person, but whom I recognised as Paul Bowles whose adventures in the North African desert are recounted. This is by no means the only story she suddenly drops into her account.
Is she a a novelist? She calls herself one but admits that she is not entirely sure whether that is an accurate description of what she does. She never seemed to reach the point when she could say for sure that she was functioning with the full force nature had unleashed in her. She hardly considered her writings to be work, seeing them as akin to notches made on a door frame, as you might mark a child’s height on their fourth birthday..
It is, in part, these comments on her own life and thoughts which makes this book interesting. Sometimes self analysis can be boring and unless. , of course, it is about your own fascinating life but in this case she has had an interesting life, not least because of the Beast, and she is very ,very good at commenting on it. At times, of course you wonder why she acts as she does. For example she does get hold of a charger but leaves both the phone and the charger, not connected, in a drawer and turns her attention to the circus rather than to the conference, she is meant to be attending.
Meanwhile back in the town, where she is somewhat lost, she meets a man and they start chatting and they go together to a fairground attraction consisting of a locked room which has various clues, which, if correctly found and analysed can open the doors. He searches for the clues while she chats and ruminates. They fail to find the clues and are released. It turns out that he knows who she is, having seen her at a literary conference and proposes that they they travel back together the next day to which she agrees to. She now has several options. Firstly, she can go back with the man she clearly likes. Secondly, she has been been invited to join the circus on a more permanent basis and travel around the country performing in the a sawing the lady in half act. She could go home on her own, charge her phone and join the conference or even explore the town further.
I have to say that I very much enjoyed this book as it seems to wander hither and yon, with a strange adventures, her ruminations on the Beast, her current life in an artist’s community b by a lake, problems with travelling and how she deals with them and, of course stories and thoughts on a whole host of various subjects.
As for the title they might have hodden How I put the Beast behind me and found myself and my Life Wandering round Europe>. Or maybe not.
Publishing history
First published in 20124 by Новое издательство
First English publication in 2026 by New Directions/Fitzcarraldo
Translated by Sasha Dugdale