Marģeris Zariņš

Writer Marģeris Zariņš (1910–1993) was a bright personality
in the Latvian cultural world. Before he gained fame as a writer, he was already a respected composer, working as the musical director for one 
of Latvia’s largest theatres – the Daile Theatre – as well as composing
 the score for 16 films, including several screen adaptations of some
 of the most recognised works of Latvian literature: Nāves ēnā (In the Shadow of Death), Purva bridējs (Marsh Crosser), Ceplis (Kiln), and others. Zariņš’s literary debut came in 1969 with a magazine publication, while
 his first story collection Saulrietu violetās ērģeles (The Violet Strings of
 the Sunset) was published in 1970. These stories were primarily about musicians and music. He gained more recognition for his later works, which are characterised by wry wit and light-heartedness, playing with themes found in other literary texts and genres. Zariņš often employed
 a compilation method and combined texts with different styles and functions within a single book. For example, his novel Kapelmeistara Kociņa kalendārs (Conductor Kociņš’s Calendar; 1982) is structured like the titular calendar, consisting of various seemingly-unrelated literary, historical, and journalistic text fragments. This work is extremely reminiscent of Milorad Pavić’s famous work Dictionary of the Khazars. A similar principle is used in the short adventure novel Didriķa Taizeļa brīnišķīgie piedzīvojumi (The Marvellous Adventures of Didriķis Taizelis; 1978).

Stories

"Literatūre" episode about Marģeris Zariņš and Ieva Melgalve // Latvijas Sabiedriskie Mediji, 2020 [LV]

Elīna Kokareviča, review of The Counterfeit Faust or a Corrected and Expanded Cookbook // Online magazine Satori, 2009 [LV]