Reading Kutsenko’s stories, you remember Chekhov, Panteleimon Romanov, Shukshin. Nikolai Kutsenko is similar to the latter in the themes of the stories and the characters of the characters: these are almost the same types of strange people, “eccentrics” or “eccentrics”, but the heroes of the modern author are more rooted in real life. Perhaps, you can recognize yourself in them in some circumstances , because we can be strange too. The colonel, who freed himself from kidney stones as decisively as he freed himself successively from seven wives. Malika, a girl from a mountain village, who was traded by her old groom for an old car. Scandinavian dances, during which the well-meaning hero, even trying to sin, only gets drunk (in a completely Russian way). A blizzard blowing away his false fortitude from a mama's boy. “The Apple Tree” is a lyrical story about an old gardener caring for an apple tree as if he were a sick child or lover. “Jealousy” is about that same Russian “utter stupidity” that Alexander Bashlachev sings about in his rock ballads. A test showing the discrepancy between common truths and real life. “Flight” is about fears, imaginary and real, that accompany our everyday life. But all these are not only incidents, but also a reason to look back at yourself and think: is this how I live? Shouldn't we change before it's too late?