Oh, gentlemen, do you know, perhaps I consider myself an intelligent man, only because all my life I have been able neither to begin nor to finish anything. Granted I am a babbler, a harmless vexatious babbler, like all of us. But what is to be done if the direct and sole vocation of every intelligent man is babble, that is, the intentional pouring of water through a sieve?
I‘m sure given the length of this tome there will be some connection to finches. 😆 We have a pair of yellow finches that sit atop the geraniums and pluck off the petals and peck at the window. Cheeky.
1. My sister and I had an interesting conversation with a ballpark acquaintance about various books and other things, in which he declared his love of Russian literature.
2. Amazing French Open men‘s final.
3. Thanks to prompting from @TheSpineView I went to the bookstore and preordered the upcoming Ann Cleeves book.
4. Dark Winds on Netflix.
5. Large #libraryhaul and a pedicure on the same day.
#5joysfriday
This story collection, pub. by Pushkin, highlights the absurdity & black humor that Dostoevsky excelled at. I am halfway through the book & have loved both stories I've read. A later entry “The Crocodile“ I had previously read as a New Directions double feature along with Gogol's The Nose and found it to be just as memorable.
Embarking on the next chunkster. 😄
so-soAnna Katerina still remains my favorite Tolstoy novel. This was a slow read, even for just over a hundred pages it was difficult to pick back up. The very ending of the book was my favorite part as it was finally over.
so-soThis didn‘t work for me as a novel (as its described) because there is no plot and there are no main characters who you get to know or care about (The narrator is an observer not driving most scenes). But as a documentary it‘s interesting, with intricate detail & some vivid scenes from prison life in Siberia in the 1850s. I found it slow & dense but it‘s a valuable record for anyone researching the subject, done with an eye for human nature.
so-so“…in the mud I comforted myself with being a hero at other times….”
pickThis was very strange, and so very Russian. It contains almost every Russian trope and is full of allegory, including a modern Christ figure. Most of it is dialogue and digression, and almost every character has episodes of mania, delirium, or hysteria. It wore me out a bit by the end, and I had a lot of "wth is going on?!?" moments, but it's still a pick.
