Over the Black Sea UA

Over the Black Sea UA

Ivan Nechuy-Levytskyi

The first novel in Ukrainian literature about Odesa, which Nechuy-Levytsky refers to in the masculine form as Odesa, his cosmopolitan, merchant, epicurean Odesa is a space for love, fun, beauty, and consumption. Against this backdrop, two ideological conflicts unfold: national culture versus cosmopolitanism and idealism versus consumerism and materialism. Intellectually, the novel focuses on the development of Ukrainian identity, and in terms of plot, it is a series of love stories. The writer once again acts as a defender of women's rights. However, the most memorable parts of the novel are the descriptions of the landscapes over the Black Sea and the relationships between people – simple, funny and eternally alive – that the cheerful Nechuy gave us.