Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex

By: Oksana Zabuzhko, Halyna Hryn - translator

Narrated by: Angela Dawe

Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

"Language - any language - that’s what I would call the capital love of my life: nothing else has the power to synthesize music and myth, two things without which the world would be a totally unlivable place."
—Oksana Zabuzhko

Called “the most influential Ukrainian book for the 15 years of independence", Field Work in Ukrainian Sex by Oksana Zabuzhko is the tale of one woman’s personal revolt. It provoked the top literary scandal of the decade.

The author, a noted Ukrainian poet and novelist, explains, “When you turn 30, you inevitably start reconsidering what you have been taught in your formative years - that is, if you really seek for your own voice as a writer. In my case, my personal identity crisis had coincided with the one experienced by my country after the advent of independence. The result turned explosive: Field Work in Ukrainian Sex.

The novel was first published in Ukraine in 1996, unleashing a storm of controversy and propelling the author to national fame. It topped the bestseller list in Ukraine for more than ten years, making it the most successful Ukrainian-language book of the '90s in every regard. Today, Oksana Zabuzhko is one of the few authors in Ukraine (and the only Ukrainian-language writer) to make a living exclusively from her writing.

©2011 Oksana Zabuzhko (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“Oksana Zabuzhko is a well-known Ukrainian poet of the younger generation as well as a literary critic and translator. Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex, her debut in the genre of the novel, marks the emergence of a powerful new voice in Ukrainian belles-lettres. This work immediately strikes the reader with its novelty of form and with the original way it presents eternal issues like love, life, and creativity, intertwining them with uniquely Ukrainian themes.” ( Slavic and East European Journal)

Intriguing fiction; painful listen

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I'm really enthralled with Zabuzhko's words but the aggressive narration has an unrelenting pissed off "slam" quality to it that I've found not only monotonous but weakening to the work in its tone of defensiveness.
I've been trying to listen to the story in spite of the narration, but suspect I'll have to find a text copy of the book in order to experience it with a clear mind.

I am in love with Zabuzhko

She is an oustanding writer and philosopher. Her sentences are long and there is a lot of narrative in brackets, but her prose flows like poetry and you can't stop reading or listening the same as she can't put a full stop. Her works stir emotions, they have a soul, a soul of a Ukrainian, a soul of a woman, a soul who tries to understand life.

Spirit of Ukraine

At first this work was hard to follow because Ms. Zabuzhko jumps from subject to subject. It is a monologue that reminded me of “The Vagina Monologues” and “The Good Body”. She covers a variety of topics, nationalism, incest, growing up in Ukraine. It’s as if the work was a reflection of life in Ukraine, always chaotic.

What was that?

I honestly don't have a clue what that was all about. The writing is surely good, the performance is magnificent, but it's like a scrapbook. I am speechless, really a waste of my time. It has no story ... just a bunch of put together memories/thoughts/god-knows-what ... oh dear

Interesting but not enjoyable

An unremitting monotone wail of adolescent self absorption, it narrates how awful it is to be a woman, to be a Ukrainian and to be a writer. If you're all three, just imagine!