The Ladies From St. Petersburg Review

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The Ladies From St. Petersburg ReviewOK, I admit to a slight prejudice (I'm the translator's proud brother), but don't take my word for it. The NY Times put it on their Best of '98 list. I don't know any Russian beyond a few guidebook phrases and isolated words that pop up in Russian songs and James Bond novels. All I ask of a translation is that it give me the sense that I'm reading great literature. I usually don't know enough - as in this case - to comment on accuracy or to nit-pick connotations. What my "reader's voice" gives me is the sound of a masterpiece, different from the sound of the translator's own prose (read the wonderful introductory memories of Berberova). The three stories collected here weren't meant as a trilogy and are separated by years and, in the case of the last, by several decades. The first two reminded me of Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Illych," with their satiric and grotesque edge on death and illness. The last seemed to me more modern, even somewhat like Kafka, in its phantasmagoria. I must admit to liking the third story -- about an immigrant in New York City - best. Berberova is good and even funny on the disorientation of the newcomer, but also romantic (and Romantic) about the city's attraction and mystery.The book is filled with passages of virtuoso storytelling - all of which seem to point to a big nature that could easily create a novel. In the first, a description of a burial stands out. In the second, a sick woman is taken out of a rooming house run by almost fairy-tale witches to a hospital. In the third, the immigrant is given a pair of (magic?) binoculars by someone who reminds me strongly of a wizard in a cave and is shown a series of powerful, disturbing images - realistic and fantastic at the same time. I have to bring up classic masters to remind myself of anything this good. Berberova's a thrilling find.The Ladies From St. Petersburg Overview

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