Sidetracked - by Alexander Voloshin (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Dralyuk's translation is characteristically masterful."--University Bookman

A bittersweet tale of war, survival, and the movies

With great wit and warmth, Alexander Voloshin's Sidetracked provides unique insight into one of the major human dramas of the twentieth century: the escape of some two million refugees from the collapsing Russian Empire in the wake of the revolutions of 1917. A former officer in the White Army, Voloshin spent the late 1920s and 1930s struggling to make a living in Hollywood as an extra. His lively yet poignant poem follows his countrymen as they resist the Bolsheviks in Ukraine, suffer crushing defeat, and take flight--first to Europe, then to New York, and, eventually, to Los Angeles. The chapters devoted to the lives of émigrés in Hollywood, which Voloshin knew so well, are a priceless document of the town's Golden Age, as viewed from the bottom up.

"Sidetracked is a masterpiece. Voloshin is a superbly funny and touching poet. Dralyuk reconstructs his life in photographs and in an engaging introduction, and brilliantly renders his poetry of yearning and resilience. This book speaks to all touched by the experience of emigration--that is, all of us--whether nostalgic for blini, pupusas, or lutefisk."
--Jeffrey Brooks, author of The Firebird and the Fox

"Voloshin's bright, ballad-like poem--beautifully rendered into English by the excellent Boris Dralyuk--reads like something from a time capsule. Running from Moscow to Odesa to Ellis Island, its artfully rhyming lines made me weep and smile and sigh. A thrilling read."
--Henri Cole, author of Gravity and Center

Review Quotes

"Boris Dralyuk is the (brilliant) translator of the poem; he also provides a superb introduction, concise notes, and a handful of images . . . To me it seems well-nigh miraculous that Dralyuk tracked down the obscure Russian edition . . . The design of this particular book is witty, handsome, nay gorgeous: a book-lover's delight."
--John Wilson, First Things

"Dralyuk's translation is characteristically masterful--retaining the witty flavor and sparkle of the original, giving the reader a glimpse of the man who wrote this poetry while hurting deeply within, never ceasing to miss his homeland, even while knowing that the country he misses does not exist anymore. But there is additional sadness to this poem, Dralyuk reminds, as we consider Russia's latest invasion of Ukraine, now past its fourth anniversary. Such stories of immigrants, driven from home by a brutal regime, are part of the region's present no less than its past."
--University Bookman

"Voloshin is continually amusing and informative . . . Dralyuk has rescued Voloshin's little prize, never before translated into English, from oblivion."
--Russian Life

"[T]his is good--and even quite touching--fun, the buoyant verse going down easy, the narrative skipping along at a quick pace while still covering a great deal. The helpful Introduction and Notes provide additional context--and there's a nice selection of photographs . . ."
--The Complete Review

"Sidetracked is a masterpiece. In his translation of Alexander Voloshin's great poem Boris Dralyuk evokes the loss of a homeland and a time of wandering and resettlement: in Hollywood, no less. Voloshin is a superbly funny and touching poet. Dralyuk reconstructs his life in photographs and in an engaging introduction, and brilliantly renders his poetry of yearning and resilience. This book speaks to all touched by the experience of emigration--that is, all of us--whether nostalgic for blini, pupusas, or lutefisk."
--Jeffrey Brooks, author of When Russia Learned to Read and The Firebird and the Fox: Russian Culture under Tsars and Bolsheviks

"Man is a wolf to man. There is no denying the shame of it. And the story of those who fled the Russian Empire to make their home in Hollywood is a cinematic and moving one. Alexander Voloshin's bright, ballad-like poem--beautifully rendered into English by the excellent Boris Dralyuk--reads like something from a time capsule. Running from Moscow to Odesa to Ellis Island, its artfully rhyming lines made me weep and smile and sigh. A thrilling read."
--Henri Cole, author of The Other Love and Gravity and Center: Selected Sonnets, 1994-2022

"We owe a debt of gratitude to Boris Dralyuk for turning his back on turgid and repetitive academic research, and instead resurrecting Alexander Voloshin, a forgotten émigré poet, in vivid verse. Sidetracked offers a fascinating, entertaining glimpse at Hollywood and filmmaking in the 1930s--not that filmmaking over-dominates, since, as Voloshin writes, only 'half the émigrés are in the movies.' Here is a volume so brilliant and, yes, so original that I am quite overwhelmed by its quality. Voloshin writes that he used all his 'skill to tell the tale.' Praise be that he did, and thanks to Boris Dralyuk not only for the rebirth of Sidetracked, but also for his excellent introductory essay."
-- Anthony Slide, author of Hollywood Unknowns: A History of Extras, Bit Players, and Stand-Ins

"Alexander Voloshin's mock epic poem of émigré life, and the dispirited Russian colony in the Golden Age of Hollywood--where the author worked as (what else?) an extra--stands out as one of the strangest, funniest, and bizarrely entertaining works of literature I've read in forever. Don't let the prospect of rhymed couplets throw you, Voloshin's voice is so engaging, and so wildly original, it's impossible not to get lost in the colorful, unlikely, and irresistible worlds the author found himself inhabiting. Sidetracked is a true little masterpiece. I absolutely loved it."
--Jerry Stahl, author of I, Fatty and Permanent Midnight

About the Author

Alexander Voloshin (1884-1960) was born in Ananiv, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. His father was a prominent figure in the Ukrainian national movement, and he was equally comfortable in Ukrainian and Russian, adopting the latter language in order to advance his career as a theatrical performer. This career was disrupted by his service in the Russian Imperial Army during WWI and the Civil War. His flight from Crimea--first to Turkey, then, via Berlin and Latin America, to New York, and finally to Los Angeles--is chronicled in his mock epic poem Sidetracked, which he composed in the late 1930s and early 1940s, while working as an extra in Hollywood. Under the name "Alex Voloshin," he appeared in dozens of films between 1927 and 1939, but he ended his days as a taxi driver.

Boris Dralyuk is the author of My Hollywood and Other Poems (Paul Dry Books, 2022), editor of 1917: Stories and Poems from the Russian Revolution, co-editor of The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry, and translator of volumes by Isaac Babel, Andrey Kurkov, Leo Tolstoy, and other authors. Formerly editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books, he is currently a Tulsa Artist Fellow, editor-in-chief of Nimrod, and professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Tulsa.