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A review by stanley_nolan_blog
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders
3.0
Chekhov and Turgenev and Tolstoy and Gogol oh my!
Well written and thoughtful analyses from one of the best American short story authors, but I think a lot of it is, or can be if one knows Russian, diminished by translator dependence. Because Saunders reads line by line, it often depends way too much on what the one of five translators of that story had written, which informs Saunders theses and our own enjoyment/studies. Nonetheless, a solid intro to Russian short stories and for short story authors interested in the minute details of crafting a tight twenty. I understand why he chose some the Russian framework, but he couldv'e written a better book if looking into Melville, Carver, O'Connor, Baldwin, Hemingway, Oates, etc.
Well written and thoughtful analyses from one of the best American short story authors, but I think a lot of it is, or can be if one knows Russian, diminished by translator dependence. Because Saunders reads line by line, it often depends way too much on what the one of five translators of that story had written, which informs Saunders theses and our own enjoyment/studies. Nonetheless, a solid intro to Russian short stories and for short story authors interested in the minute details of crafting a tight twenty. I understand why he chose some the Russian framework, but he couldv'e written a better book if looking into Melville, Carver, O'Connor, Baldwin, Hemingway, Oates, etc.