"Throughline" by Lyudmila Ulitskaya, summary

Published in 2002, "Throughline" is a collection of short stories and novellas exploring the nature of women’s lies, self-saving fiction, and the bizarre twists of human memory. At the center of the book is the human ability to transform the drab everyday through mythmaking, illusions, and self-deception, which sometimes protect the vulnerable soul from an unbearable reality. In 2005, director Pyotr Shteyn made a television play of the same name based on the title work.

The story "Through Line"

The narrative opens with a reflection on the differences between male and female deception. Male lies are pragmatic and strategic, like the actions of the cunning Odysseus. Female lies are selfless, impulsive, and akin to free poetic creativity.

In the short story "Diana," philologist Zhenya is vacationing in a Crimean village with her young son, Sasha. Their neighbor is the striking red-haired translator Irene Leary, the daughter of an Irish communist and a Dutch woman, Susan. Over an evening of port, Irene shares a devastating family tragedy. She recounts the loss of four children: her firstborn, David, who died in childbirth; her one-year-old, blue-eyed beauty, Diana, who was poisoned by seduxen during her mother’s illness; and her twins, Alexander and Yakov, who died along with their composer father in a car accident. Zhenya is deeply affected by the grief of others, shedding tears. A mutual friend, Vera, arrives and shatters the illusion: Irene never had any deceased children or husbands. Shocked, Zhenya takes her son and secretly leaves for the New World, trying to understand the motives behind this monstrous fabrication.

In the short story "Brother Yurochka," Zhenya spends a rainy summer at her dacha with her sons and nephews. They are joined by Nadya, the ten-year-old daughter of Anna Nikitichna, the landlady. Nadya captivates the boys with her amazing stories. She claims to have starred in a Spanish bullfighting film, helped the police apprehend a dangerous killer, witnessed an unidentified flying object land in the garden, and constantly cites the authority of her older brother, Yura. Her mother, arriving unexpectedly, confirms her trip to Spain, the capture of the criminal from a composite sketch, and the scorched earth. However, this is the first time her landlady has heard of her son, Yura, and she is furious. The exposed girl, through bitter tears, screams that her brother really does exist.

The novella "The End of the Plot" describes wintertime Moscow in the mid-1980s. Zhenya is experiencing personal drama and an affair with a Tbilisi theater director. A thirteen-year-old relative, Lyalya, confesses to Zhenya her sinful passion for her cousin, the graphic artist Arkady. The girl describes their secret encounters in detail. Zhenya tries to save the teenager, buys birth control pills, and invites Arkady to a conversation in the cafe of the Prague Hotel. The artist is stunned: he really is having a secret affair with an adult, but he doesn’t even remember the schoolgirl Lyalya. The fiction collapses, and years later, the grown-up Lyalya appears as a happy mother.

In the short story "A Natural Phenomenon," the young university applicant Masha accidentally meets the elderly professor Anna Veniaminovna in a park. The elderly teacher takes care of the girl, reading poetry and hinting that the outstanding lines of the Silver Age were written in her youth. Masha reverently keeps a notebook of her mentor’s poems. After her mistress’s death, Masha reads these notes at a memorial service for her university colleagues. The guests stand uneasily. Zhenya gently distracts the assembled group with a toast and then explains to the naive girl that the masterpieces she has read are by Maximilian Voloshin and Marina Tsvetaeva.

In the short story "Lucky Chance," Zhenya works in television in the early 1990s and agrees to a project by Swiss director Michel. He plans to make a film about the lives of Russian émigré women in Zurich. Zhenya interviews nightclub workers. All the women recreate a single, iconic storyline: a noble captain-father in a white uniform, a cruel stepfather, a runaway, the groom’s death on the eve of the wedding, and a quick, saving marriage to a banker. A certain Lyuda from Moscow serves as the epitome of success. Upon meeting this elegant woman, Zhenya witnesses her getting drunk and confessing: she is Zoya, from a mining village near Tula, completely dependent on a pimp. Director Michel is inspired by the idea of making a feature drama, but soon dies of a drug overdose after the death of his wife.

Stories from the collection

The novella "Second Person" introduces eighty-year-old retired prosecutor Yevgeny Nikolayevich. He has carefully maintained a secondary position all his life, which has allowed him to maintain his status and amass a priceless collection of antique watches and paintings. Aware of his impending doom, the old man arranges a viewing for his numerous relatives eager to cash in on his inheritance. The grandfather offers to bequeath his entire fortune to his beloved granddaughter, Mashura, on the condition that she divorce her undesirable husband. Mashura rejects the deal with laughter. After the sudden death of her master, his will is announced: his real estate and savings are to be given to his eccentric nephew, Alexander, to set up a shelter for homeless dogs, while his greedy relatives receive only a porcelain cup each.

In the short story "Women of Russian Villages…," the émigré Vera gathers two longtime friends, Margot and Muscovite Emma, for a feast in their New York apartment. Vera fondly remembers her late husband, Mikhail, an incorrigible drunkard and womanizer whom she loved without regard for insults. Margot laments her divorce from her alcoholic husband, and Emma shares her decision to permanently separate from the Moscow sculptor Gosha. That night, a flushed Margot embraces the slender Emma and suddenly feels a malignant lump in her breast. The intoxication wears off instantly: Margot immediately arranges a visit to an oncology clinic, and a shocked Emma calls Moscow and cancels her breakup with Gosha.

The novella "Zu-yurich" describes the fate of the orphan Lydia, who underwent a harsh apprenticeship as a servant under her meticulous mistress, Emilia Karlovna. At an industrial exhibition, Lydia meets Martin, a Swiss representative of a paint and varnish company. She lures the guest with a home-cooked dinner of sturgeon, caviar, and the careful washing of his tired feet in a basin. Martin, captivated, obtains a divorce and marries Lydia. The couple opens a restaurant in a suburb of Zurich, but Martin suddenly suffers a stroke and becomes a paralyzed invalid. Lydia takes over the household, achieves commercial prosperity, and years later flies to Moscow laden with luxurious gifts to boast of her victories to her former mentor. However, in her old apartment, she finds Emilia Karlovna completely frail and lost in the stupor of old age.

The story "The Orlovs-Sokolovs" tells the story of two gifted physics students, Andrei Orlov and Tanya Sokolova. The young people form a united whole in everyday life, sports, and scientific research. Their balance is upset when the only place in an academic graduate program is allocated. Tanya yields to her lover, but harbors a deep sense of defeat. During a summer vacation in Crimea, she suddenly leaves her fiancé, marries an aspiring writer, Viktor, and gives birth to sons. Eleven years later, the former lovers meet as families on the seashore, spend a secret night together, but realize with clarity that turning back the clock is no longer possible.

The novella "The Beast" centers on the experiences of lonely Nina, who lost her mother and husband, Sergei, within the same year. A brazen stray cat appears in the empty home, regularly desecrating her master’s bed. The exhausted woman struggles unsuccessfully against the pest until her stern boss, Mirkas, throws the animal off the balcony. Later, on the anniversary of her husband’s passing, Nina has a blessed dream: ancient singing resounds in the sunlit house, and all the departed loved ones, friends, and the forgiven cat are in peace and perfect harmony.

The novella "The Queen of Spades" depicts the domestic tyranny of ninety-year-old Moore, a once-brilliant beauty accustomed to subjecting others to her whims. Her adult daughter, ophthalmologist Anna Fedorovna, meekly endures the nagging of her elders. The unexpected arrival of Anna Fedorovna’s ex-husband, a successful doctor named Marek from South Africa, disrupts their routine. Marek easily pacifies the capricious Moore and draws up an invitation for his grandchildren to vacation in Greece. Their mother forbids the trip and crumples the document in a rage. On the eve of the children’s secret departure, Anna Fedorovna goes out for milk and suddenly collapses dead from a heart attack. In the apartment, Moore rails against her thwarted plans, but her granddaughter Katya delivers a resounding slap to the despotic old woman.

The story "Darling" tells the story of Nikolai Romanovich, a professor of aesthetics. Driven by a sinful passion for young men, the scholar marries the naive hospital caretaker, Antonina, for the sake of her twelve-year-old son, Slava. His stepfather showered the adopted boy with tender care, introduced him to classical music, and raised him to be a devoted partner. After the professor’s death, the now-adult Slava becomes close to the cellist Zhenya, but proves incapable of reciprocating a woman’s love. The young man begins to pursue casual encounters on Tverskoy Boulevard, falls into criminal circles, deteriorates in the camps, and dies tragically in a park.

The final sketch, "Barley Soup," conveys childhood memories of her mother, a biochemist. The simple gray soup emerges in three memory moments: during a secret feeding of poor old people under the stairs of a house, during a visit from a strange beggar who had survived a fire and taken a rug from a chest instead of clothing, and at the hour of the sudden death of a neighbor girl, when the bereaved mother and neighbor silently share a bowl of hot soup, mourning their irreparable loss.