Re: Books You've Read in 2020
Originally Posted by
zambenini
Report back. I have never connected with the Russians but want to try again. I loved something about Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov but am maddeningly 75 pages from the end and haven't been able to pick it back up for years now. Am an American lit guy mostly but I love how others love Fyodor, Leo, etc.... And I want to love them too.
I think I was taking it too seriously, too, and missed how darkly comic it is. Anyway, earnestness is nice sometimes but if it makes you miss the joke, then, well, yeah.
When I get some time I can pull together a list for you. Don't let my career in tech fool you, my formal training is in Russian Literature. A good way to build up to the large works from the Golden Age is with povest (novellas) that are shorter and help develop an appreciation for the depths of the big works. Dostoevesky's Notes from Underground is a great warmup to Crime and Punishment. Some of the short stories and novellas from Pushkin, Gogol and Turgenev are also great and not typically on the Russian sampler reading list.
Also, I think 20th century Russian Lit has some of the best (and absolute worst, but that's for another day). Two of my absolute favorites are The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov and The Life of Insects by Victor Pelevin.
"I guess you're some weird relic of an obsolete age." - davids
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