Early life

Ričardas Gavelis was born on 8 October 1950,^{[lower-alpha 1]} in a Red Cross maternity hospital in Vilnius to mathematician Vytautas Gavelis (1928–1991) and physicist Vanda Gavelienė (née Riaubaitė) (1926–2013).^[7] Gavelis' grandfather was a pedantic farmer who mortgaged his farm immediately after inheriting it, after which he traveled to South Africa in 1925 to work in a diamond mine. During Soviet occupation of Lithuania, he owned a large amount of land and avoided deportation to Siberia by bribing government officials.^[8] Gavelis' mother was an enjoyer of literature from an early age due to the influence of her father. She looked up to her physics teacher as an inspiration and studied physics in Vilnius and later became a teacher, like her husband.^[1]

Gavelis lived facing the courtyard of the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, not far from the Vilnius Gate of Dawn.^[5] At that time, the monastery was a wine factory. Childhood places were often depicted in his novels, such as the monastery being the one described in his novel Vilnius Poker.^[9][8] In 1961, at the age of eleven, he and his parents moved to Druskininkai^[5] – both Gavelis' parents worked as teachers there previously. He studied at the Druskininkai High School (Druskininkų 1-oji vidurinė mokykla). At the age of 5, Gavelis learned to read in Lithuanian and Russian. He stood out for his intelligence and tendency to talk to older people rather than peers. Although his school year literary works were graded the highest, he did not participate in any literary competitions. He attended music school, played lots of sports, however always held a high interest in physics.^[1] He graduated in 1968.^[10][11]

Studies and career in Soviet Lithuania

In 1969 he returned to Vilnius and began studying physics at Vilnius University.^[1] In 1973 he graduated with commendation with a degree in theoretical physics^[5] and up until 1977 worked at the Physics and Mathematics Institute of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.^[2][12] In 1975 he married fellow physicist Nijolė Paukštytė.^[1] As a physicist, Gavelis was considered one of the most promising new theorists of his generation, actively involved in the research of ferroelectricity and phase transitions. During almost five years of work, he published two significant scientific works.^[5]

He was writing his first work as early as 1973.^[5] His literary debut was a collection of short stories entitled Neprasidėjusi šventė, published in 1976^[13] in the newspaper Nemunas,^[5] for which he was criticized for plagiarizing Gabriel García Márquez.^[8] He also began creating dramas such as Inadaptus (1976) and Sūkuriai (1977). From 1978 to 1980 he was employed in the editorial department of the magazine Mokslas ir gyvenimas.^[6][2] Around 1980 he purchased a flat in Karoliniškės and lived there for the remainder of his life.^[9] Gavelis spoke of the place as having a lack of a feeling of neighborhood and community. Such themes would appear in his later novel Memoirs of a Young Man. During this time, he wrote his first screenplay Rungtynės nuo 9 iki 9 (1980). He published two subsequent novels entitled Įsibrovėliai (1982) and Nubaustieji (1987),^[2][4] as well as another drama called Triumviratas (1986). He briefly worked in the editorial department of the magazine Pergalė from 1988 to 1989.^{[9][6][13][2]}

Gavelis was already writing Vilnius Poker as early as 1980, as is evident by letters he sent his friend Levas Rabšteinas. In late 1988 or early 1989 Gavelis sent the manuscript to the senior deputy editor of Vaga Publishers [lt], Aleksandras Krasnovas [lt]. Initially, the publishing would have taken two years, but Krasnovas attempted to fasten and change the publishing so that it would not reach ardent censors. Gavelis strictly forbade any edits of his manuscript, even grammar itself, although later when confronted with mistakes he accepted that they should be fixed. The book appeared publicly in November 1989, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, also coinciding with Juozas Aputis's modernist novel Anthill in Prussia. The novel was published with 50,000^[8] copies and propelled Gavelis to fame; he was often invited to interviews and television, and was the subject of discussion in newspapers.^[12]

Post-independence career and later years

In 1991 he published Memoirs of a Young Man (Jauno žmogaus memuarai).^[13] From 1992 to 2002 he worked as a news analyst for the daily Respublika and weekly Veidas magazines.^[9][6] In 1995 he published Taikos balandis.^[14] In 1993 he wrote a sequel to Vilnius Poker, Vilnius Jazz (Vilniaus Džiazas).^[4] Gavelis dedicated a book to Vitas Lingys, a journalist killed by criminals, entitled Nemirtingumas in 1994.^[2] He then wrote three novels over the course of five years – Paskutinioji žemės žmonių karta (1995), Prarastų godų kvartetas (1997), Septyni savižudybės būdai (1999). In 2000 he was awarded the Vilnius Club and Television Literary Prize.^[15][16][9] He wrote his final novel, Sun Tzu gyvenimas šventame Vilniaus mieste, in 2002. Gavelis also co-wrote the screenplay with Algimantas Puipa of the movie Forest of the Gods (Dievų miškas), released only in 2005.^[17]

Ričardas Gavelis died on 18 August 2002,^[4][2] aged 52, of heart failure.^[18][5] Condolences were given by the Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus. He is buried in the Antakalnis cemetery.^[19][9]

A book that was a collection of memories about Gavelis, as well as his manuscripts, letters, essays, and creative analysis of his work, was published in 2007.^[9] Gavelis was honored with a plaque along with other writers in 2008 in a pedestrian hallway situated on Literatai Street.^[20] In 2020, a square on Drujos Street was named after him.^[21][22][23] A memorial plaque was uncovered in 2021 in Druskininkai.

Themes

Ričardas Gavelis was one of the most prominent writers of modernism and postmodernism in Lithuanian literature.^[13][2] As a writer under Soviet censorship, he never showed his manuscripts to friends or his wife, suffering bouts of insomnia as a result of censorship and paranoia. His manuscript of Vilnius Poker was locked in a briefcase and successfully hidden from Soviet authorities.^[24] Gavelis's works explore the nature and relationship of power and evil, and are characterized by themes of death and erotica.^[2] In shorter novels, such as Neprasidėjusi šventė, Įsibrovėliai, Nubaustieji, and Taikos balandis, he explored the motives of human behavior in situations such as disease, exile, and murder.^[2] Characters in Gavelis' works are often paranoid and schizophrenic, often seeing phantasmagorical visions and nightmares.^[2] His work has been described as "intended to mercilessly return readers to the hated and denied inner reality, which needs to be experienced once again" ^[25] and "anti-romantic",^[5] although playful satire and irony is also present.^[26] Gavelis' work became known for its intriguing and deliberately provocative prose, which "retained something of the scientist's logic".^[27] Gavelis was strongly influenced by James Joyce.^[5][28][8] Gavelis's works have been translated into English, Latvian, French, Polish, Finnish, German, Macedonian and Belarusian.^[13]