Still Coming
Because I know you care so much, I couldn’t make up my mind which books to pick for the Russian Reading Challenge – so I committed to reading at least four of a longer list.
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Last month I finished Gogol’s collected tales about which I cannot express enough enthusiasm. The hardest thing is to make it seem effortless, and these stories were so artfully written they didn’t seem to have been written at all. And it’s especially gratifying to read a story like “Viy” next to a story like “The Nose” – to exhibit such stylistic diversity while remaining instantly recognizable – I’m just in awe. Having previously read Dead Souls, I already knew I had an affinity for Gogol’s writing, but the stories were far superior. Now I feel like I want to read a bit of critical writing about Gogol as well – the introductory essay to the translation of the stories I read was quite helpful, but I’m interested in something longer, perhaps. Suggestions?
Next up is Red Cavalry, then maybe Oblamov, maybe something else.
I finished Oblomov awhile back. It was good, but like a lot of foreign or period satire, much of it was lost on me. I kept having the aggravating sensation of knowing that what he was talking about something more political, more satirical, but not having the necessary context to really appreciate it. Still, it was funny and interesting. It’s sort of like reading Gulliver’s Travels now; the satire is lost on me, but I still appreciate the explicit fantasy of the plot. With Goncharev, it’s sort of the same, it’s just about this guy who stays in bed all day and lives a life of absurd leisure.
— Freddie · Apr 4, 02:46 PM · #
Staying in bed all day sounds to me like a life of absurd torture. Something like “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
The last novel I read about a guy who did nothing all day was The Magic Mountain which I found brilliant but horrifying.
— Noah Millman · Apr 4, 03:05 PM · #
Nabokov has a pretty fantastic book on Gogol (his favorite Russian writer). The upshot of it is that Gogol’s works defy analysis, and critical takes other than Nabokov’s will be ridiculous.
— George Ellis · Apr 4, 11:49 PM · #