Pogromatic Stuff

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Pogromatic Stuff

Post by Pappa » Tue Feb 13, 2018 8:27 pm

Sorry, this was meant to be a parody, but the title got me thinking about One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. It's one of my favourite books, though I haven't read it for years. I've always liked Russian fiction, but embarrassingly still haven't got round to reading Crime and Punishment, though I did read Notes from the Underground a few years ago.

I read We once and was really impressed. Apparently Aldous Huxley denied having read it before he wrote Brave New World, and Orwell publicly called him a liar.

I'm a fan of Andrei Kurkov. He's written some great novels and somehow I'm friends with him on Facebook.

Anyone got any favourite Russian fiction?

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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by Forty Two » Tue Feb 13, 2018 10:01 pm

I slogged through War and Peace. Not my favorite, but a few decades ago I committed myself to reading it because of the cliches surrounding the book. I don't know why some folks have ranked that book all the way at the top of novels ever written. I found it ponderous.

You might try Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. That's a cool one.

Also, not a novel, but it is a must read - The Gulag Archipelago, by Alexandre Solzhenitsyn. That thing will knock your socks off.
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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by Rum » Tue Feb 13, 2018 10:04 pm

I'm glad to see someone still has the patience for Russian literature. I know I don't. I read several of the well known books including Crime and Punishment, Anna Karenina, The Idiot (my favourite) and started War and Peace. This was several decades ago.

I gave up on War and Peace and sadly have never been back to them. They require leisurely, contemplative and unhurried reading I think. I lost the ability to be any of those things in my later 30s.

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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by Brian Peacock » Tue Feb 13, 2018 10:44 pm

"I've developed a method of speed reading, which is really useful in my business. Last night I settled down with milk and cookies and read War and Peace in one sitting. It's about Russia." -- Woody Allen.
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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by pErvinalia » Wed Feb 14, 2018 1:50 am

I never really got what all the hype about Crime and Punishment was about. I preferred Brothers Karamazov. But I'd prefer to read a Wilbur Smith novel than read any more Russian literature. It's all so bleak. Having said that I do want to read Doctor Zhivago. It might be a while, though, before I regain the concentration levels to read serious literature again.
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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by L'Emmerdeur » Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:41 am

I read the 'Grand Inquisitor' chapter of The Brothers Karamazov and left the rest for later. Still haven't returned to it. ;) Taras Bulba is good enough; properly bleak in the Russian tradition, and has the advantage of not taking up too much of your time.

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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by Sean Hayden » Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:49 am

Russian history is bleak...

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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by laklak » Wed Feb 14, 2018 3:09 am

You want bleak try Cancer Ward.

I tried "We", but it was too turgid and slow. Needed more tits.
Yeah well that's just, like, your opinion, man.

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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by rainbow » Wed Feb 14, 2018 5:50 am

I call bullshit - Alfred E Einstein
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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by DRSB » Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:00 am

Me of course, I know Russian literature very well, even the modern one. It helped too that I used to have lots of business trips to Russia and could stock up.
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Russia and Russian have always been a huge resource to me. Whatever I study, research or translate, I check out what the Russians have done as well, in fact, as a first point of reference.

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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by cronus » Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:15 am

I was forced to read that book at school Paps. I liked reading Asimov at the time. That book put me in the first circle of hell. Hated it. :?
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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by Pappa » Wed Feb 14, 2018 7:43 am

laklak wrote:You want bleak try Cancer Ward.

I tried "We", but it was too turgid and slow. Needed more tits.
I read the first few chapters of Cancer Ward a couple of years ago, but didn't finish it. Mobile phones have destroyed my attention span, but I should finish it. It seemed like an excellent novel.

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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by JimC » Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:06 am

I read SF, fantasy, crime, poetry and science. That's it...
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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by Svartalf » Wed Feb 14, 2018 9:11 am

@ OP : You know that Ivan Denissovitch is not fiction but a heavily edited autobiographical piece, right?
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Re: Pogromatic Stuff

Post by Brian Peacock » Wed Feb 14, 2018 11:27 am

Svartalf wrote:@ OP : You know that Ivan Denissovitch is not fiction but a heavily edited autobiographical piece, right?
That book cured me of communism.
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There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

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"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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