Chevengur - Andrey Platonov, Robert Chandler (trans)

 I am proud to say my name appears in the acknowledgments- I read the whole manuscript in Russian and English and gave comments on it for one long, beautiful summer. I have studied Russian Lit and language in college, and been avid in Slavic lit since I discovered Gogol at age 13. That's my attempted credibility.

All the same there was always a gap in my Soviet literature shelf... Bulgakov is great, the poets are powerful, Gorky ruled in college, and does Nabokov count? Don't let the Soviets have him!

Then Platonov came to me after the age of 30, and I devoured his work, just stared into it from cover to cover. It is up there with Gogol and all the greats of any age. If you haven't read his work, it is an utterly different approach to reality; an inscrutable sense of humor; a signature clarity that is dissolved into paradox, a deadpan joke about a political idea the size of the universe, an idea that ended up looking like it would kill the universe to succeed, if it had to.

Chevengur is the long lost first work of this author, but it is different from the typical novel of this sort. It is not training wheels--I am tempted to say it is his strongest work. It is also his longest work--again not typical. And as the translator Robert Chandler told me, it contains seeds of most of the ideas he would grow throughout the rest of his life.

For a gateway into Platonov, I recommend the Foundation Pit or Happy Moscow. Shorter, and full of the bizarre matter-of-factness which reminds me of how Vonnegut would speak of world history as if he were watching from another planet.

What an amazing accomplishment this book is, and let's get it into your hands right away!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin, Hélène Iswolsky (Translator)

 A Russian man takes you from slapstick moment to slapstick moment through this orgiastic saga, and relates it to the human ass and how that relates to role reversal--in all kinds of reference, like religious rituals and garb, the study of anatomy, natural cycles. And Bakhtin, as an oppressed Russian citizen, loved Rabelais... idolized the free expression of each chapter. If I recall, he says "Gargantua and Pantagruel is the bravest book ever written." Extra doses of country respect go to the translator, who must have faced quite a challenge in deciding on the exact terminology for Bakhtin, such as his references to the "lower stratum" which occur on almost every page. I would like to have a look at the raw source material myself--educated Russians of the 19th century knew French almost as well as their own language, yet I wonder how Bakhtin chose to read Rabelais. (I have sided ultimately with the Screech translation of Rabelais. It has the most additional cl...
Read more

Collected Poems in English by Joseph Brodsky.

 It's excellent stuff. Phases of matter, places both in human construct and topology, are all thoroughly redefined. Then there are the ornate metaphors, and the wise tone of gratitude toward life, which is ultimately a tour through the relics of those dead who came before, scattered with plants and parts they had yet to understand. It was only a little hard to understand if, or which of, these poems were written in English, or translated craftily from Russian. They feel like the outcome of much mental convolution, in any case, but a pleasure to read.
Read more

Nikolai Gogol - Vladimir Nabokov

  I never liked Nabokov, thought he was pompous and hyper-erudite. In this book he seems to have something to say! If you love Gogol, read this book. You will weep. If you love Nabokov, this book will make you love Gogol. And that is the proper thing to do, believe me. It has Nabokov's failings... at times the reader will wonder if Nabokov is going to stop describing the place he is writing from and get back to Gogol! But that's what you pay for with Nabokov, it has very amusing moments about it. It also sets out to wax humorously on Russian culture at length: but this is actually very useful for lovers of Russian literature who are not Russian. Truly great. Nabokov makes some questionable statements about who should like Gogol's work, some very elitist statements. But do not worry. Gogol is definitely for everybody. Read this book if you have enjoyed Gogol's work. But it would help to read most of Gogol first, and love it thoroughly if you want to be mo...
Read more