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I got into fiction late and so when I got around to reading the great Russian novels, recently, I arrived mid-stream into the literary establishment having filtered them through Dick Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, a married couple living in Paris, one of whom doesn’t even understand Russian. P&V translate works together as a pair with supreme fidelity to the original language on a word level. It is cool that this married couple communicates so well, and it’s helpful to have a direct English translation of the sentences Tolstoy, Dostoevsky put down. But the books are unreadable. They’re so jagged and mushy. Constance Garnett’s translations are better. She wrote them back when; she has a light touch, reads Jamesian, and her original suite of mistakes have been papered over in subsequent editions. Man, they’re good. Harder to find but worth looking for. My points are better stated in a Janet Malcolm story on the subject (which is in her book Nobody’s Looking at You) and in a Commentary article by a University of Illinois professor.
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Jan 24, 2024
Fantastic introduction to his work and Russian literature incredibly relatable and humorous
Jan 22, 2024
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dispatches from a progressive russian reporter. outrageously good. incredible coda here: https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/how-they-tried-to-kill-me/ read it before or after!!!
Jan 31, 2024
Top Recs from @sami
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I like the neuroplastic/wholesome/health recs in these letters, and I remember this specific advice from an earlier one and am going to echo it. Walking is really it. People love lifting and breaking sweats but frankly walking 8,000 steps a day (10 tbh) is more important for long-term health. By a hair… I won’t make any crazy claims like walking can cure depression. But…. if you eat right, breathe through your nose, get some sleep and sun and have something you want to do every day, and have a couple of bucks to your name and some friends, it might. More realistically, even when things could improve at least you get to go on a nice long walk.
Nov 23, 2022
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Among the best two or three places in the world, I wound up here by mistake this summer going to Lord’s Cricket Ground (took the long way), but without trunks, so I came back. It’s a pretty cold freshwater pond with trees all around it near the lookout point, and is open spring to fall. There are men’s and ladies’ ponds too, nearby. George Smiley swam laps in one with his head above water at the start of the Tinker Tailor movie; when I went other retirees were doing the same. It’s unreal to step into, much less swim in; you feel like a million bucks or pounds getting out of the water. It’s hard to believe this place exists. It looks like the nice half of that Bosch painting.
Nov 23, 2022
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I remain optimistic about this dipshit and think he should get another year at least.
Nov 23, 2022