Few Russian writers went through as many diverse life experiences as did Vladimir Maksimov. He traversed all strata of Soviet society, transforming himself from a lowly criminal outcast to a controversial member of the Moscow literary intelligentsia. His travels, whether by choice or mandatory, encompassed the vast Soviet Union and, after his forced emigration, the entire world. Many of these experiences became the raw material on which he later drew as a novelist. They informed his prose with a freshness, immediacy, and authenticity--even the works of a lesser artistic quality was absent.

In histories of Russian literature Maksimov often is referred to as an émigré author of the "third wave"--that is, as one of the many writers who left the Soviet Union during the years of Leonid Il'ich Brezhnev's rule. Maksimov's worldview and aesthetic peculiarities set him apart, however, from the émigré and...