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A review by yetilibrary
Mother by Maxim Gorky
3.0
I've been thinking about how to review this book since I started reading it and I still don't know how. I think I'd have to reread it at least once to fully "get it." There are so many layers, so many themes, so many subtleties, so much tea ... I know I can't properly review it all, because I didn't properly absorb it all. (Reading it over the course of a few months at bedtime on my kindle was NOT the right way to read this book. I'm sorry, Maxim Gorky.)
Mother is a deceptively easy read with so many heavy themes: parents and children, the clashes between (and love between) generations, Communism, politics, questions of Truth (yes, with a capital T), revolution and rebellion, idealism vs. pragmatism, religion without faith and faith without religion ... did I mention these themes were heavy?
What interested me the most was the question of whether there was a difference between a fanatic and a hero (for lack of a better word). Communism isn't ever referred to as Communism (or even Socialism), if I recall correctly; it's only referred to as "the truth." And believers of The Truth, working to spread the word of it to society at large and rebel against the Czarist regime, sometimes blur the line between "activist" and "straight-up fanatic." (And the parallels to True Believer followers of a budding religious movement are inescapable.) Some members of the movement sacrifice their freedom for the movement; others, any chance of a "normal" life (with marriage, children, not living on the lam, etc.); still others are beaten or face execution. Others are convinced that everyone will join them if only they read the pamphlets and hear The Truth. And then there are those who believe a bunch of people, including The Workers who do not believe them or who spy on them, are going to have to be killed. What Gorky leaves us with is a picture of a mix of ascetics, near-hysterical True Believers marching cheerfully to their martyrdom, and a handful of axe-sharpening proto-Bolsheviks. This may be a pretty accurate picture of early revolutionary movements in general, but it never does answer my question: what's the difference between a fanatic and a hero/activist? IS there one? I guess it's just in the eye of the beholder.
Mother is a deceptively easy read with so many heavy themes: parents and children, the clashes between (and love between) generations, Communism, politics, questions of Truth (yes, with a capital T), revolution and rebellion, idealism vs. pragmatism, religion without faith and faith without religion ... did I mention these themes were heavy?
What interested me the most was the question of whether there was a difference between a fanatic and a hero (for lack of a better word). Communism isn't ever referred to as Communism (or even Socialism), if I recall correctly; it's only referred to as "the truth." And believers of The Truth, working to spread the word of it to society at large and rebel against the Czarist regime, sometimes blur the line between "activist" and "straight-up fanatic." (And the parallels to True Believer followers of a budding religious movement are inescapable.) Some members of the movement sacrifice their freedom for the movement; others, any chance of a "normal" life (with marriage, children, not living on the lam, etc.); still others are beaten or face execution. Others are convinced that everyone will join them if only they read the pamphlets and hear The Truth. And then there are those who believe a bunch of people, including The Workers who do not believe them or who spy on them, are going to have to be killed. What Gorky leaves us with is a picture of a mix of ascetics, near-hysterical True Believers marching cheerfully to their martyrdom, and a handful of axe-sharpening proto-Bolsheviks. This may be a pretty accurate picture of early revolutionary movements in general, but it never does answer my question: what's the difference between a fanatic and a hero/activist? IS there one? I guess it's just in the eye of the beholder.