Práce s chybami – Poljakov Jurij (2017)

Working with Mistakes is one of the most well-known and beloved novels by Russian writer Yuri Polyakov (* 1954). It was first published in the Soviet Union in 1986 and soon received a successful film adaptation. The main character of the book, journalist Andrei Petrushov, unexpectedly and unplanned becomes a Russian language teacher at an elementary school after being dismissed from the newspaper. Suddenly, he begins to uncover the shortcomings of school life that are rarely discussed – and which it might be better not to know about at all. Whether the backdrop is critically perestroika or free of politics, the main role in this disillusioning novel is played by conflicts within the teaching staff, the unequal struggle against ambitious and careerist parents, and on the other side, the penetration into the torn souls of their teenage offspring. In the case of the sympathetic self-ironic melancholic Petrushov, there is also the effort to win the affection of a young colleague and, last but not least, the search for a mysterious lost novel. During the semester spent behind the desk, he realizes that many mistakes and errors we make in life are far more serious than those in school dictations. And their correction is by no means always easy... The work will amuse anyone who has ever stood behind or in front of a lectern, one of which...