Tweet
Kirkus Reviews
December 1, 2012, Saturday
AN ARMENIAN SKETCHBOOK
NONFICTION
A new translation of Russian novelist Grossman's delightful journal of
his stay among the Armenians. Composed two years before his death in
1964, this journal records the author's reflections on the Armenian
people among whom he lived for two months in 1961 as a "translator"
for a famous Armenian novelist, Rachiya Kochar, although Grossman
didn't speak Armenian. Rather, rewriting his novel in collaboration
with the vain, large-living author, Grossman, who was occasionally
gripped by bowel trouble from the early stages of kidney cancer he was
unaware of, moved among the humble, mountain-dwelling Armenians and
found them enormously sympathetic, salt-of-the-earth people whose
diversity, national pride and piety contrasted sharply with the
Russian temperament. In this sprightly translation by the Chandler
husband-and-wife team, who previously tackled Grossman's Everything
Flows and The Road, Grossman's character sketches, executed with
swift, loving strokes, provide simply charming reading.
The author digresses as nimbly about the master craftsmen of Russian
stoves found in the homes of the high-mountain villagers ("what
quantities of bread, what a great deal of cabbage, how much living
warmth his stoves have given birth to!") as he does the touching
customs of a rustic wedding he attended. Living among the Armenians,
he witnessed a kind of timeless biblical nobility he conveys with
artless simplicity in his own work. Deft, poignant characterizations
by an author who deserves a wider readership
Publication Date: 2013-02-19
Publisher: New York Review Books
Stage: Adult
ISBN: 978-1-59017-618-4
Price: $14.95
Author: Grossman, Vasily
From: Baghdasarian
December 1, 2012, Saturday
AN ARMENIAN SKETCHBOOK
NONFICTION
A new translation of Russian novelist Grossman's delightful journal of
his stay among the Armenians. Composed two years before his death in
1964, this journal records the author's reflections on the Armenian
people among whom he lived for two months in 1961 as a "translator"
for a famous Armenian novelist, Rachiya Kochar, although Grossman
didn't speak Armenian. Rather, rewriting his novel in collaboration
with the vain, large-living author, Grossman, who was occasionally
gripped by bowel trouble from the early stages of kidney cancer he was
unaware of, moved among the humble, mountain-dwelling Armenians and
found them enormously sympathetic, salt-of-the-earth people whose
diversity, national pride and piety contrasted sharply with the
Russian temperament. In this sprightly translation by the Chandler
husband-and-wife team, who previously tackled Grossman's Everything
Flows and The Road, Grossman's character sketches, executed with
swift, loving strokes, provide simply charming reading.
The author digresses as nimbly about the master craftsmen of Russian
stoves found in the homes of the high-mountain villagers ("what
quantities of bread, what a great deal of cabbage, how much living
warmth his stoves have given birth to!") as he does the touching
customs of a rustic wedding he attended. Living among the Armenians,
he witnessed a kind of timeless biblical nobility he conveys with
artless simplicity in his own work. Deft, poignant characterizations
by an author who deserves a wider readership
Publication Date: 2013-02-19
Publisher: New York Review Books
Stage: Adult
ISBN: 978-1-59017-618-4
Price: $14.95
Author: Grossman, Vasily
From: Baghdasarian