Kaur Kender · 2014
Kaur Kender · 2014
The general public and the critics had to wait almost until the end of the decade for the arrival of a writer who would interpret the everyday life of the first half of the nineties, a time when the ruins of socialism were slowly being covered by the brutal society of «early capitalism». Everybody experienced it at first hand, but not a single prominent writer was able to interpret it. Estonian writers who starred in the 1980s had lost contact with society's centres of power from where the changes actually originated. It was no longer possible to understand life without leaving the seclusion of your writing desk, like it had been in the stagnation period.
The world of business - and that of crime - developed at breakneck speed. New life and new characters were born at the border of these two worlds, written about in the press, but not treated of in literature. In 1998, a long-awaited explosion occurred - far brighter than anticipated - and Kaur Kender made his comet debut in literary life. Cynicism and cruelty, described by Kender with utmost precision, shattered the myth with which the 50-60 year old generation of writers - primarly poets - had surrounded Estonian nationhood and the Estonian spirit as such.- Barbi Pilvre, Estonian Literary Magazine
