Ričardas Gavelis’ Vilniaus pokeris’ (‘Vilnius Poker’ translated into English by Elizabeth Novickas – 2009) (1989; latest Lithuanian edition – 2019, Tyto alba)
Ričardas Gavelis’ ‘Vilnius Poker’ is undoubtedly one of the most important works of fiction about Vilnius. The city is depicted as an individual character in itself, envisaged even with body parts (for example, the famous Gediminas Castle tower is a ‘blunt, helpless phallus’). The novel reflects on and deconstructs Lithuanian history and legends and openly criticises the totalitarian system (referred to as ‘Jie’ or ‘They’). There are no tidy, representative spaces of the capital; Gavelis’ Vilnius is a ghostly space of filth, disorder, and hallucinations. Bold, impudent imagery, horrific, controversial events, the enigmatic story of the death of the protagonist Vytautas Vargalys’s beloved Lolita – this is the reality of ‘Vilnius Poker’, somewhat reminiscent of the films of Quentin Tarantino. Incidentally, it is not only because of this particular book that Gavelis is deemed a chronicler of Vilnius: the city is also reflected upon in works such as ‘Memoirs of a Young Man’ (1991) [translated into English by Jayde Will in 2018] ‘Vilnius Jazz’ (1993), and ‘Sun-Tzu’s Life in the Holy City of Vilnius’ (2002).
Ričardas Gavelis „Vilniaus pokeris“
Jurgis Kunčinas’ Tūla’ (1993; latest edition – 2018, Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishing House)
Like ‘Vilnius Poker’ by Ričardas Gavelis, Jurgis Kunčinas’ ‘Tūla’ debunks the monumental, majestic capital of the state, celebrated in poems. In it, the nameless narrator wanders the streets of Vilnius in the second half of the 20th century, imbibes in cafés and boozers, and ends up in a psychiatric hospital (‘The Hospital of Drunkards’). The city is portrayed in the novel with sensitivity as a place of inspiration and love, but at the same time, it is dirty, full of contracts and bohemian life. ‘Tūla’ is thus a poetic love story in which we find vivid descriptions of love and the city, images of the old, still ungentrified Užupis, and the world of intellectuals that does not succumb to the constraints of the Soviet era – a world that is not given to alienation.
Icchok Meras ‘A Stalemate Lasts but a Moment’ (1963; new edition – 2006, Baltos lankos)
The Jewish literature of Lithuania, and of Vilnius in particular, is truly impressive. The texts of Grigory Kanovich are important, as are new sources of indescribable value that have been published in recent years, such as Yitskhok Rudashevski’s ‘Diary of the Vilna Ghetto’ (2018) and Matilda Olkinaitė’s ‘Unlocked Diary’ (2019). Icchok Mero’s ‘A Stalemate Lasts but a Moment’ is one of the best novels written in Lithuanian in the 20th century. The language of the narrative is spare and simple but very compelling and existentially rich. The main action takes place in the Vilnius ghetto. The teenager Isaac Lipman and the ghetto commandant Adolf Shoger are playing chess, and the fate of the entire ghetto depends on the outcome of the game: if Isaac wins, he dies, but the children of the ghetto remain alive; if he loses, he lives, but the children die, and only a draw can save the lives of everyone. It is a universal work, reflecting on the themes of free will, heroism in tragic circumstances, human cruelty and kindness, love and compassion.
Romain Gary’s ‘The Promise of Dawn’ (1960; latest edition – 2016, translated into Lithuanian by Violeta Tauragienė, Baltos lankos)
The image of Vilnius as a multicultural cauldron of nations is also evident in its literary legacy. It is not only Czesław Miłosz and Taras Shevchenko who describe the capital of Lithuania in detail in their texts; so do other world-famous writers. The city is also one of the most important spaces in Romain Gary’s (Roman Kacew) autobiographical novel ‘The Promise of Dawn’. The French writer of Russian Jewish origin, who won the Goncourt Prize twice, lived in Vilnius (J. Basanavičiaus g. 18) from 1917 to 1923. Although it depicts a complex historical epoch, the book is full of amusing irony and witty episodes. One of the funniest scenes involves Romain eating his rubber galosh to prove to his first love of ‘insatiable nature”, Valentina, that he really loves her. This episode has been captured for posterity in the sculpture ‘Boy with a Shoe’ next to Gary’s childhood home.
Anna Halberstadt’s ‘Vilnius Diary’ (Mudfish Individual Poet, 2014) (‘Vilniaus dienoraštis’, 2017, translated into Lithuanian by Marius Burokas, Lietuvos rašytojų sąjungos leidykla)
Vilnius has its own great poets – Czesław Miłosz, Judita Vaičiūnaitė, Tomas Venclova and others. However, it is not very often that an entire collection of poetry is dedicated to the city, and in this case, it was written in English rather than Lithuanian. ‘The author of ‘Vilnius Diary’ is a psychologist and poet, born and raised in a Jewish family in Vilnius, currently living in the USA. Halberstadt’s poetry is steeped in the nostalgia of old Vilnius. The poems feature the territory of Vilna Ghetto, the poet’s childhood home at the intersection of Pylimo Street and Vingrių Street and other city spaces. There are lots of recognisable places in this excerpt from ‘Long Poem about Vilnius’:
I can see the façade of St. Kotryna’s baroque church through the window.
On the right is the elongated school building
in what was considered
modernist Aalto style in the sixties.
A few blocks away, in the small square Adam Mickiewicz is still there.
Poor Adam, still contemplating
whether he is a great Lithuanian poet or a Polish writer who had written: “Oh, Lithuania, my fatherland!”
in Polish!
Aš galvojau, kad užmiršau tą kalbą!
I thought I’d forgotten this language!
[…]
Leonardas Gutauskas ‘A Wolf Tooth Necklace’ (Part I, 1990, Vaga)
The characters of Leonard Gutauskas’ A Wolf Tooth Necklace’, who wandered around the dirty, poor streets of Vilnius in the second half of the 20th century, would not have been believed that Užupis would go on to become a prestigious district of the city. The novel is woven from fragments of stream-of-consciousness technique – Šimas Tadas’ dreamlike memories of his childhood and youth. Tadas and the other boys observe the ruins of the post-war city from Bekešo Hill, i.e. Maironis’ ‘palace’ turned into ‘smoke’; in the streets, they encounter revellers of the night, thieves, and beggars; they try to find themselves, and they mooch around, loitering and debauching. Like the famous’ Vilnius Poker’ by Richard Gavelis, Gutauskas’ work not only describes an interesting phase of the city’s history but also symbolises the whole of life in Lithuania in the second half of the 20th century, exploring its changes and the search for identity.
Mindaugas Kvietkauskas ‘The Fugue of the Port’ (2016, Lietuvos rašytojų sąjungos leidykla)
This is not a collection of fiction; it is not even a collection dedicated to Vilnius. However, this book of intellectual essays is pulsating with life in Vilnius and its mysteries. In discussing the history of culture, and the processes of today’s culture, the author often walks the streets of the capital of Lithuania, both in his mind and physically, both in the present and in the distant past. The first essay in the book, ‘The Fugue of the Port’, takes us to the former Uosto Street (now Pamėnkalnio Street) and the story of Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė, who lived there. The essay ‘The Master of Eternal Movement’ enables us to immerse ourselves in the life and works of one of the city’s most renowned and enigmatic architects – Johann Christoph Glaubitz, while the other essays take us to the library of the Vilnius Ghetto, the Church of St. George, the city’s suburbs, etc.
Abraham Sutzkever’ Green Aquarium’ (Originally published in 1953 as ‘Griner akvaryum’ in Yiddish; it was translated into Hebrew in 1975, English in 1982, and in 2013, into Lithuanian by Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas)
The collection of poetic prose by Abraham Sutzkever, one of the most important poets of Jewish modernism, writing in Yiddish, captures a multitude of places in Vilnius: Šnipiškės, the Green Bridge, Šeškinė Hill, Vingis Park, the Bernardine Gardens, etc. The author spent his childhood and youth in Vilnius and also lived in the ghetto, from which he escaped. Some of the characters in the short stories in the book echo episodes from the author’s life in Vilnius. For example, in the ‘short description’ (as Sutzkever referred to the stories) ‘The First City Wedding’, Dondelė is a chimney sweep hiding from the Nazis who bricked his mother Asna in the chimney – in 1941, the poet himself hid in a chimney for several weeks and in a small hiding place under a roof in Šnipiškės. In ‘Green Aquarium’, Vilnius is mythical, tragic, and painful but, at the same time, poetic – it’s a Vilnius that no longer exists but which must be known.
Justinas Žilinskas „Mano Vilnius mano“
Justinas Žilinskas ‘Mano Vilnius mano’ (‘My Vilnius is Mine’) (2015, Aukso žuvys) and Kristina Gudonytė ‘Jie ateina per pilnatį’ (‘They Appear during a Full Moon’) (2015, Tyto alba)
In recent years, there has been an increase in teenage literature about Vilnius. Justinas Žilinskas’s ‘My Vilnius is Mine’ is an intriguing story about the city, written in a language that young people can understand. The main characters, Aistė and Simas, become interested in a haunted house in Antakalnis and meet the ‘Annalist’ (Metraštininkas), who takes them on a journey through the history of Vilnius: from the city of Grand Dukes to the end of the 20th century. In the same year, 2015, Kristina Gudonytė’s They Return at Full Moon was published. The book tells the adventures of three friends – Berta, Žygis and Augis – in Vilnius. The youngsters enter the world of the 16th-century rulers, and one of the 16th-century rulers – Žygimantas Augustas – comes to the present. Legends intertwined with the reality of the present day, like in Žilinskas’s book, help us to learn many facts about the history of Vilnius and Lithuania, as well as the people who lived and worked here. Both books are playful and informative and worth reading.
Unė Kaunaitė Sudie, rytojau’ (‘Goodbye, tomorrow’) (2011, Žara)
The work can be called a novel of the individual’s becoming: the main character Vytautė is searching for her own self, going through the lessons of social relations, and experiencing important experiences of her youth. The author dedicates the book to ‘Vilija. The author dedicates the book to ‘Vilija and Vilnius’. The city is important in the novel both as a place of action – where one walks, observes and contemplates the space – and as an object of the protagonist’s admiration. It is a novel for teenagers, which interestingly shows the challenges and problems of a young person and the relevance of the place where he or she lives, revealing the beauty of various places in Vilnius. The text is not complicated and is easy to read, but in addition to the pleasure of reading, the book also offers topographical experiences.
Kristina Sabaliauskaitė „Silva rerum I“
Kristina Sabaliauskaitė ‘Silva rerum I’ (2008; latest edition – 2021, Baltos lankos)
Kristina Sabaliauskaitė needs no endorsement: she is one of the most popular contemporary Lithuanian writers. The ‘Silva Rerum’ series of novels also significantly enriches the literary image of Vilnius, as the city is very significant in the novel: the history, architecture, and famous personalities of the Lithuanian capital come to the fore. The main characters, the Norvaišas family, live in the heart of the Old Town, on Pilies Street. The novel focuses on the children of the family – twins Kazimieras and Ursula. Kazimieras is a student at Vilnius University, while Uršulė lives in a convent of Poor Clares. The picturesque, detail-oriented narrative allows not only the participants of Sabaliauskaitė’s tour of Vilnius but also the readers of the novel to visit the streets of the capital city, the gateways (‘bromas’), the Norvaišas family house, the Baroque streets of the Old Town, the university, the Church of St. Michael the Archangel, and the former Bernardine (Clares’) monastery.
Jurga Ivanauskaite ‘The Gardens of Hell’ (1992, Nemunas)
Jurga Ivanauskaitė’s The Gardens of Hell depicts the life of informal youth in the last years of the Soviet era. From the perspectives of the characters Agnė, Roberta, Saulius Strazdas and Domantas, the story tells us about the world of rock musicians (the band ‘Langas’), their environment, the hippie lifestyle of the underground, and the hope of an independent Lithuania. The experimental structure of this book is reminiscent of Julio Cortázar’s ‘Hopscotch’ Classes: at the beginning, there are reading instructions – you can read the whole novel from start to finish; alternatively, you can read about the characters individually or follow the life of just one character (with the chapters indicated). Although the city is not in the foreground in ‘The Gardens of Hell’, Vilnius, as is often the case in Ivanauskaitė’s texts, is the main setting. The characters are concentrated around Pilies Street, where there is an important informal meeting place for young people – the former ‘Vaiva’ café. This novel is a great opportunity to get to know Ivanauskaitė’s early, experimental, ‘punkish’ work.
