May the steppe come alive and blossom in all its glory. ~ Chingiz Aitmatov
That quote, from the climactic portions of this short novella by the Kyrgyz
May the steppe come alive and blossom in all its glory. ~ Chingiz Aitmatov
That quote, from the climactic portions of this short novella by the Kyrgyz author, really vivifies its whole ethos. To any reader -- casual or serious -- what will be immediately present is the Steppes of Kazakh and Kyrgyz environs, smoothly taking shape in front of the reader's eyes, thanks to the wonderful narrative talent of Chingiz Aitmatov.
While the story itself is plain and simple, it's the beauty of narration that transports one to the very place and time of its setting. ...more
This book is a gem, which steps through the Procatechesis and 5 chapters on the Mystagogical Catecheses of St. Cyril of Jerusalem. Almost 1,700 years This book is a gem, which steps through the Procatechesis and 5 chapters on the Mystagogical Catecheses of St. Cyril of Jerusalem. Almost 1,700 years old, it provides a detailed exegesis of how baptism and chrismation are done in the Church, which is almost unchanged in the Orthodox churches till date. Apparently, these were written for the catechumens and newly illumined flock of St. Cyril of Jersualem (these writings are also attributed in part to his successor John II of the See of Jerusalem), which serves as an excellent reference for such candidates of our modern times too! Because, hardly anything has changed in the Eastern Churches, when it comes to these primary mysteries of faith. They are substantive and not merely symbolic. BTW, the introduction in this book is very edifying and occupies about 50% of the entire allotted space.
Every procatechesis and mystagogical catecheses has content in Greek on the left-page and in English on the right-page. This is different in this new edition, as the older edition of the same book had all the content in Greek first, followed by their tranlation in English next. For those, who would like to see this ancient treatise in Greek-and-English side-by-side, this latest edition would be a welcome resource at hand....more
Definitely pick this entertaining book for your bedside reading, as Michael McGirr has a dubious distinction of falling asleep, while he was deliveriDefinitely pick this entertaining book for your bedside reading, as Michael McGirr has a dubious distinction of falling asleep, while he was delivering one of the homilies at his Church. ...more
This magnum opus will not tire me out. There is just so much in here that is only going to keep on growing within me as a reader.
In 2021, I read DemoThis magnum opus will not tire me out. There is just so much in here that is only going to keep on growing within me as a reader.
In 2021, I read Demons under Richard Pevear Larissa Volokhonsky's translation. As of date, this is my top-rated favorite edition. Besides copious notes, it also has a list of characters, at the outset of the novel, besides being friendlier to readers, who may be averse to the confusing intermixing of various names in Russian Literature. The bowdlerized chapter of At Tikhon's is presented separately as an appendix.
In 2022. I read Devils under Michael R. Katz's translation. Personally, I love his translation and that is true for this novel as well. However, this edition does not have a list of characters in the novel. It does have extensive footnotes, which is salutary. However, I do not understand, why Prof. Katz had opted to freely intermix the various names for the same person, in the same sentence, which can definitely be unwelcome to readers -- including those that are conversant with the Russian patronymics and nicknames. While I was not put off by it, I definitely did not see it as adding to the flow of the novel. In that sense, I am a bit disappointed that Michael R. Katz's translation of this work is not on par with his excellent work on Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. That said, kudos to Michael R Katz for placing the censored chapter of At Tikhon's at the very place where Fyodor Dostoevsky had originally intended.
Art too is just a way of living, says Rainer Maria Rilke, in the final pages of this pithy, mustard-seed sized book of an epistolary collection of leArt too is just a way of living, says Rainer Maria Rilke, in the final pages of this pithy, mustard-seed sized book of an epistolary collection of letters to Franz Xaver Kappus. I just loved this book, to the core, for the spiritual, philosophical, and even theological points it makes with the intense writing of Rainer Maria Rilke that is so gravid and dense with thought! Like the translator Stephen Mitchell, "these extraordinary letters were my introduction to Rilke" as well. And of course, I share Stephen Mitchell's quip that I too feel that "these letters were written for me." These letters are just a wonderful, heartfelt, collective-paean to solitude....more
These are not only peasant tales, rather, pleasant tales of a bygone era. It is a collection of simple tales, told in a gripping fashion with a patinaThese are not only peasant tales, rather, pleasant tales of a bygone era. It is a collection of simple tales, told in a gripping fashion with a patina of melancholy.
There is something within Vasili Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko's pen, where he takes on the ingenuity of simplicity to transplant the reader to that very setting of Holy Rus and it is worth reiterating this point. Otherwise, the whole collection of 4 stories, may be viewed as nothing more than romantic sentimentalism. After all, reading books like these -- that have stood the test of time -- invites the readers of this age, to that age and not vice-versa.
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Like a circle that ends on the same point, where it starts, the final story's final climax, has an eerie similarity to the first story's final climax -- besides, both the stories' protagonists bear the same name Ivan with an esquire. There is something, very poignant about that.
What I found terrific in Nemirovich-Danchenko's Peasant Tales' is how effortlessly, he takes us into the climes of those individual stories. In the first story, we experience the dark, damp, suffocating copper mine; in the second, a dark night at the military camp; in the third, a dark night of the soul of a well-educated, modern girl as a nun: Sister Helene; and finally into the very dark forest where the fast-paced action takes place.
There are 4 stories in this collection:
The Deserted Mine (My favorite - 5 stars)
Mahmoud's Family (3.5 stars)
A Misunderstanding (My favorite - 4.5 stars)
The Luck of Ivan the Forgetful (My favorite - 5 stars)
Clearly, The Deserted Mine is the longest story in this collection. "Ivan the Old Man," is the reclusive protagonist, who gets to be enraptured by the terrific happenings in a copper mine, where he and his generations before him had worked. Very early on, Vasily Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko offers a peek into the genesis of Ivan, with a somber note:
Ivan had been born in the eternal darkness.
What makes this short-story gripping is the simple prose, which transplants the reader, into a dark mine, where things just happen. As dark and claustrophobic and ruthless the Hades like copper mine exists in Ivan's world, was there an illumination or Illumination that he alone could perceive? That marks the leitmotif of this entire story, beautifully narrated. You do not have to have been on a visit to a mine, to understand this beautiful narration of Nemirovich-Danchenko:
For him the water which filtered through the walls of the mine was a shower of tears, and that which trickled, yellow of tint, across the ore resembled flowing blood.
In Mahmoud's Family, Nemirovich-Danchenko humanizes the fighters of the Russo-Turkish War, by narrating a Turkish PoW caught up with the Russians. At one point. Nemirovich-Danchenko himself tries to transcend the narrative of the tale saying it is not "sentimental", but, it is though, in many ways. Definitely spice this one-up for your children's Christmas Tales, albeit, this story happens on the last day of the year. Who amongst us, would not have felt this way, either when we were in a literal battlefield or at a client-site, thinking of our family back home?
"Ah, how gladly one would see those one loves, were it only for a single moment!"
Serendipitously, this story reminded me of the short-story Cain by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin, which forms the very last story of A Slav Soul and Other Stories and one can easily see, why there is a strong parallel between these two short stories, by two different contemporaneous authors.
In A Misunderstanding, a tale of triangular love, slowly unravels amidst the dark night of Sister Helene's soul. This short-story very much motivated me to take up Leo Tolstoy's Father Sergius for my reading next, as the dilemma of taking up to a nunnery or a monastery, as an escapade from the tormenting secular life, forms the crux in both of these stories.
In The Luck of Ivan the Forgetful, I had a deja vu of meeting Victor Hugo's Jean Valjean and Cosette from Les Misérables. In a tryst with each other's destiny, the little girl Anjuta holds out a mirror to Ivan, which connects him back to his very own humanity, that he had lost in himself from early on. Some of the conversations between the two are implied and inferred in the context of the one who speaks and the one who listens. There is some dry humor that would appeal to childlike hearts. For e.g., in the very last tale, where Ivan is in the forest, only to be confronted by a bear, this is how that exchange goes ...more
“Happy Christmas…all the year!� This is a superb edition carrying not only “A Christmas Carol,� but also “A Christmas Tree,� told from the perspective“Happy Christmas…all the year!� This is a superb edition carrying not only “A Christmas Carol,� but also “A Christmas Tree,� told from the perspective of a delightful child’s, “A Christmas Dinner� which tells of a reunion of a divided family, with the final compendium being from the Christmas tales in the “The Pickwick Papers.� Afterword by Gerald Charles Dickens, is obviously a lagniappe from the Dickens� family. ...more
1. A Slav Soul 2. The Song and the Dance 3. Easter Day 4. The Idiot 5. The Picture 6. Hamlet 7. Mechanical Justice 8. The Last Word 9. The White Poodle 10. The Elephant 11. Dog's Happiness 12. A Clump of Lilacs 13. Anathema 14. Tempting Providence 15. Cain
It is truly a daunting task to select the top 3 from this collection but, here is mine:
14. Tempting Providence, which has shades of existential thought of the absurd, with its own philosophic thoughts and dlalectical discourse with self.
But, how can one ignore the childlike wonder behind these short-stories, which will be a wonderful set of stories to narrate or read out to the children?
9. The White Poodle 10. The Elephant 11. Dog's happiness
True to his wont and shtick, Kuprin has his distinct slant of coarse satire with sentimentalism, smeared across several of the stories in this short-story collection. He takes on the satirical whiplash against the well-to-do bourgeouis in The White Poodle, for example. He takes on a conscientious objection to the Orthodox Church in anathematizing the anathema against Leo Tolstoy in the short-story Anathema.
His childlike sense of humor, is as usual, traded against individuals, classes, groups, institutions and even the Church. In the Mechical Justice, he satirizes the meritocratic Professor of the academe.
As I may have stated in my earlier review of Kuprin’s,what this sensitive soul of a writer does, is to see through the eyes of his very characters. Naturally, his flair and storge for animals � especially dogs � comes out fully in The White Poodle and Dog’s Happiness.
To pay a tribute to Kuprin on this short-story collection, will be to paraphrase his own, in a slightly different way: We can look at the characters and scenes of his stories in this short-story collection, with a microscope, while they in turn can look at us with a telescope, especially when we are approaching this short-story collection after a century since it was originally written.
Leo Tolstoy once said, "if a person is free from vanity, it is easier to serve God." In Father Sergius, we see a broken man, fallen man, with virtue Leo Tolstoy once said, "if a person is free from vanity, it is easier to serve God." In Father Sergius, we see a broken man, fallen man, with virtue and pride and vanity, schlepping his own path to redemption. This is a wonderful, short-story. The protagonist cannot be locked under any particular stereotype, as to do so, would be to take a very shallow look at ourselves.
The key to unlocking this whole short story comes from an observation made by Pashenka, en passant.
The only thing is that I know how bad I am�
In a time and age, when even spirituality is preached or taken-up for vanity, pride, and celebrity stardom, Leo Tolstoy's Father Sergius issues a clarion call from the wilderness, as a gentle reminder to be robed in meekness, humility, and spiritual poverty, as to be illumined by the Beatitudes.
Thoroughly enjoyed it. Absolutely brilliant as to how Leo Tolstoy managed to convey such a heavy theme, within this novella! ❤️...more
"You have been occupied while life hurtled past you." Seneca cannot be blunter than this. Philosophy does not need to be dry, arid, and dreary. There"You have been occupied while life hurtled past you." Seneca cannot be blunter than this. Philosophy does not need to be dry, arid, and dreary. There are moments of chuckle too! Take for example, when Seneca juxtaposes how nettlesome people can be, when something goes wrong with their haircut and they unload on their barber! And then he quips this:
Which of these fops would care more if his country was in disarray than his hair? Who is not more worried about having his head look good rather than it be safe?
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