Isn't everybody?
Ok, seriously.
I saw bits and pieces of Anna Karenina and thought it was blech (kind of reminded me of Effie Briest, German novel we had to read in high school. Symbolism, etc....)
I can't shake the feeling that a lot of those 'stories, written by guys are only there to underline that woman doesn't get to cheat.
Or she dies.
And gets buried in the front yard under the sundial. After all, novel reading was at one time considered grounds to be put into insane asylums!
Explain the Russian authors of the past to me in 50 words or less.
I mean, War and Peace has become a running joke in pop culture. Does anybody actually read it?
Whenever I come across a list of the 'must reads', I do check.
Most of the books on there I would try to weasel out of reading if I got a grade or pay for it, other wise I wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole.
Then again, I don't read as much as I used to (and there are hardly any German novels on there ever.)
And of course I am odd in my tastes.
do I make any sense?
I'd be surprised if I did.....
I can't describe it in 50 words or less because I am part Russian and we are all genetically verbose.
I like "Anna Karenina". Read it twice - once as a teenager (was required reading at school) and once as an adult. The point of the book is not that women are not allowed to cheat. On the contrary - Tolstoy's argument in the form of this books was, women should be allowed to do whatever the hell they want and not be driven to suicide by guilt.
I like "War and Peace" and re-read it about every 4 - 5 years in its entirety. I think we were too young to read it at the age of 15 in Russian literature class. But I like my dad's advice to re-read it at intervals. He does this too - he says it helps him measure the level of his own maturity and his change as a person over the course of time.
My favorite book is Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita". It too is a frequent re-read.
My mission as a translator is to focus on what's beyond Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, although I have translated and published both. My specialty are less-known works by known authors and works by less-known Russian and Ukrainian authors. I've done TONS of Alexander Kuprin. He is my favorite Russian writer. He was a hopeless romantic and a vehement advocate of women's rights. His novel "The Pit" about Russian prostitutes was considered scandalous and immoral - it's actually a beautiful book that started a women's rights revolution in Russia.
My other frequent flyer is Alexander Grin - his genre was fantastic realism. I've done a fair share of sci fi translations - Alexander Belyaev, Strugatski brothers, and Ivan Yefremov. Most people don't even know there IS such a thing as Russian sci fi. Meanwhile, it's amazing and fascinatingly weird. I've done quite a bit of the other Tolstoy - Alexei Nikolayevich (yes, they were cousins), as well as TRUE Russian and Ukrainian classics no one in the west had heard of: Odoyevsky, Pogorelski, Leskov, Kotsubinsky, Marko Vovchok, Ivan Franko. Getting into the audiobook universe allowed me to expand my audience and give a vocal expression to all these awesome stories.
There is also something I am working on as we speak - my own invention, and I am very proud of it. It is a series of weird, creepy, and spooky stories from Russian literature called "Moonlit tales of the macabre - small bites". It's already up on Kindle - there are almost 30 installments - and we are working to make a matching audio series as well. so, it's good times. I'll have a fabulous lineup for Halloween.
