I want to thank you for your Substack Joel. The writing is so good. thoughtful, balanced, inspires me to think. Truly an island of excellence in a sea of subterfuge.
I really enjoyed The Gambler Wife, and this interview! I'd like to recommend two other less well known Russian authors, Guzel Yakhina and Eugene Vodolazkin, both writers of great subtlety and depth.
I hadn't read that; thanks for the link. This is my second time - my first was when I was 21. I'm 63 now, and like Ms. Austen, it's an entirely new book for me.
Also, I just listened to your conversation with Jonathan Rogers. I taught both his daughters. Small world!
Thank you for this informative & illuminating discussion. I am particularly excited to be introduced to the work of Karolina Pavlova. Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Solzhenitsyn help readers to see the peril of moral stasis in their convicting and frequently disconcerting writings. Their shared & always challenging Beatitude-like vision of faith, rooted in sacrifice & selflessness, has much to teach our own culture so saturated in performative moral signaling!
Let me thank you also for this. I had heard of Professor’s book but mistakenly believed it was called “The Gambler’s Wife,” putting the focus back on him and not her!
Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" is a magnificent novel. The lead character, Prince Myshkin, is the dearest person in world literature, at least in my familiarity with it. He's clearly a Christ figure. I can't recommend this novel too highly. It's also something most people who have a sense of Dostoevsky wouldn't expect, frequently very funny. A few days after my mother's death in 2001, I went to Barnes and Noble, hoping to find a piece of great literature which might give me some consolation. My eye fell on a paperback copy of "The Idiot," and I knew that it was the one.
Many years later, I was talking with a clinical neuropsychologist. We got into the topic of Dostoevsky. He told me that neuropsychologists, neurologists, neuroscientists, the whole crew of them, are fascinated by Dostoevsky. He said,
"Yeah. You've read him to an extent, and you know about his life. You know that he was a temporal lobe epileptic, and that there was no treatment for it in his lifetime. ( Prince Myshkin is a temporal lobe epileptic. ) We think that some of the things in those novels, the - ."
He paused.
"Are you trying to say 'weird things?'" I asked.
"Exactly! We're certain that his epilepsy accounts in large part for much of it."
"Do you mean things such as the scene in 'The Idiot' in which one of the characters makes a brilliant logical argument for the virtue of cannibalism?" I said.
He smiled and nodded.
"Uh huh."
In perhaps a more savory vein ( that's sort of a pun, but a low class, early James Bond pun ), I suggest that everyone read Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita." The novel is indescribable. It's a surrealistic masterpiece, about the Devil and several of his more intimate associates, who come to Stalin's Moscow in the 1930s ( when and where Bulgakov was writing the book ) and set up in a theatre as Master Magician and Co., or however they bill themselves.
Bulgakov died shortly after finishing the book circa 1940. Both he and his wife had been terrified that the authorities would find out about the book's existence, because apparently it could be read as a hard smack against Stalin, though I confess I have never understood why. His widow kept the book's existence secret until the mid 1960s, when she worked up the nerve to approach one of the literary magazines with the manuscript. The editors loved it, bought it, and ran it over two or three issues. It seems to have had a remarkable, intoxicating quality on its readers, many of whom dared to start grousing openly about the miseries of Soviet Russia, and Russian historians credit the book's effects with having been one of the first important popular strikes against the Communist tyranny.
There's a great anecdote about Bulgakov. I was fascinated to learn that in the 1920s in Soviet Russia the new Communist authorities had had a remarkably liberal attitude toward the arts. Bulgakov had been a playwright and theatre director, and had flourished in 1920s Moscow. This ended abruptly in the late 1920s, when Stalin grabbed what powers he had not had. ( God knows how many people received a bullet behind the ear in this miserable episode. )
Bulgakov was regarded as poison in the Moscow theatre after this. He thought to emigrate, and did the required paperwork. One day the phone rang.
"Bulgakov?" said the man at the other end.
"Yes?" Bulgakov replied.
"I'm from the government. I'm looking at your request to emigrate. Why do you want to leave?"
Bulgakov explained that he wanted to work, but that because of the clampdown, no one would hire him.
"You want to work in the theatre? I can get you a job in the theatre. Would you like to work for the Moscow Art Theatre? ( It was the theatrical equivalent of the Bolshoi Ballet. )"
Bulgakov was stunned. Yes, of course!
"Very well. I'll arrange it."
Before the man hung up, Bulgakov had the presence of mind to ask his benefactor's identity.
"The Master and Margarita" is my favorite 20th century Russian novel (and apparently a lot of other people's). The combination of fantasy, comedy, and historical fiction (the Jesus scenes) is like nothing else.
BTW, the title "The Idiot" seems to confuse people. It doesn't mean the guy was stupid. Dostoevsky was using the term in its Greek sense ("idiotes," meaning a private person, one who doesn't participate in public affairs). A more accurate translation would be something like "The Man Who Was Wrapped Up in Himself."
There's a restaurant in St. Petersburg called the Idiot Cafe - or at least there was, last time I was there (around 2009).
I want to thank you for your Substack Joel. The writing is so good. thoughtful, balanced, inspires me to think. Truly an island of excellence in a sea of subterfuge.
Peter, that’s very gratifying to hear. Thanks for reading along! And thanks for letting me know. Means the world to me.
Thanks for this Joel! Andrew's work and writing has been such an inspiration.
Yes, agreed. I find his Books Behind Bars program especially so.
I really enjoyed The Gambler Wife, and this interview! I'd like to recommend two other less well known Russian authors, Guzel Yakhina and Eugene Vodolazkin, both writers of great subtlety and depth.
I’m a huge Vodolazkin fan. One of my favorite novelists!
This is a painting I made incorporating a quote from Vodolazkin’s The Aviator https://artologica.etsy.com/listing/1759479508
My favorite of his novels!
My favorite is Laurus, but they're all good!
Wow, this is weird - I'm about 80% through reading War and Peace right now! Your interview came at the perfect time.
Funny how that happens! Did you see Lucy S. R. Austen’s post about reading it amid at two different stages of life? https://www.millersbookreview.com/p/reading-war-and-peace-in-war-and-peace
I hadn't read that; thanks for the link. This is my second time - my first was when I was 21. I'm 63 now, and like Ms. Austen, it's an entirely new book for me.
Also, I just listened to your conversation with Jonathan Rogers. I taught both his daughters. Small world!
That’s wild! Fun interview, btw!
Thank you for this informative & illuminating discussion. I am particularly excited to be introduced to the work of Karolina Pavlova. Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Solzhenitsyn help readers to see the peril of moral stasis in their convicting and frequently disconcerting writings. Their shared & always challenging Beatitude-like vision of faith, rooted in sacrifice & selflessness, has much to teach our own culture so saturated in performative moral signaling!
My pleasure! I just enjoy the fact I get to share stuff like this!
Wonderful! I really enjoyed this
Excellent. I actually thought of you a few times as I read Andrew’s answers.
Great post and interview.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Let me thank you also for this. I had heard of Professor’s book but mistakenly believed it was called “The Gambler’s Wife,” putting the focus back on him and not her!
She’s definitely the hero. And she earns the title! Incredible book, really.
What a passionate and informative interview - I learned so much. Thank you for sharing - truly enjoyable!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" is a magnificent novel. The lead character, Prince Myshkin, is the dearest person in world literature, at least in my familiarity with it. He's clearly a Christ figure. I can't recommend this novel too highly. It's also something most people who have a sense of Dostoevsky wouldn't expect, frequently very funny. A few days after my mother's death in 2001, I went to Barnes and Noble, hoping to find a piece of great literature which might give me some consolation. My eye fell on a paperback copy of "The Idiot," and I knew that it was the one.
Many years later, I was talking with a clinical neuropsychologist. We got into the topic of Dostoevsky. He told me that neuropsychologists, neurologists, neuroscientists, the whole crew of them, are fascinated by Dostoevsky. He said,
"Yeah. You've read him to an extent, and you know about his life. You know that he was a temporal lobe epileptic, and that there was no treatment for it in his lifetime. ( Prince Myshkin is a temporal lobe epileptic. ) We think that some of the things in those novels, the - ."
He paused.
"Are you trying to say 'weird things?'" I asked.
"Exactly! We're certain that his epilepsy accounts in large part for much of it."
"Do you mean things such as the scene in 'The Idiot' in which one of the characters makes a brilliant logical argument for the virtue of cannibalism?" I said.
He smiled and nodded.
"Uh huh."
In perhaps a more savory vein ( that's sort of a pun, but a low class, early James Bond pun ), I suggest that everyone read Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita." The novel is indescribable. It's a surrealistic masterpiece, about the Devil and several of his more intimate associates, who come to Stalin's Moscow in the 1930s ( when and where Bulgakov was writing the book ) and set up in a theatre as Master Magician and Co., or however they bill themselves.
Bulgakov died shortly after finishing the book circa 1940. Both he and his wife had been terrified that the authorities would find out about the book's existence, because apparently it could be read as a hard smack against Stalin, though I confess I have never understood why. His widow kept the book's existence secret until the mid 1960s, when she worked up the nerve to approach one of the literary magazines with the manuscript. The editors loved it, bought it, and ran it over two or three issues. It seems to have had a remarkable, intoxicating quality on its readers, many of whom dared to start grousing openly about the miseries of Soviet Russia, and Russian historians credit the book's effects with having been one of the first important popular strikes against the Communist tyranny.
There's a great anecdote about Bulgakov. I was fascinated to learn that in the 1920s in Soviet Russia the new Communist authorities had had a remarkably liberal attitude toward the arts. Bulgakov had been a playwright and theatre director, and had flourished in 1920s Moscow. This ended abruptly in the late 1920s, when Stalin grabbed what powers he had not had. ( God knows how many people received a bullet behind the ear in this miserable episode. )
Bulgakov was regarded as poison in the Moscow theatre after this. He thought to emigrate, and did the required paperwork. One day the phone rang.
"Bulgakov?" said the man at the other end.
"Yes?" Bulgakov replied.
"I'm from the government. I'm looking at your request to emigrate. Why do you want to leave?"
Bulgakov explained that he wanted to work, but that because of the clampdown, no one would hire him.
"You want to work in the theatre? I can get you a job in the theatre. Would you like to work for the Moscow Art Theatre? ( It was the theatrical equivalent of the Bolshoi Ballet. )"
Bulgakov was stunned. Yes, of course!
"Very well. I'll arrange it."
Before the man hung up, Bulgakov had the presence of mind to ask his benefactor's identity.
"Comrade Stalin."
"The Master and Margarita" is my favorite 20th century Russian novel (and apparently a lot of other people's). The combination of fantasy, comedy, and historical fiction (the Jesus scenes) is like nothing else.
BTW, the title "The Idiot" seems to confuse people. It doesn't mean the guy was stupid. Dostoevsky was using the term in its Greek sense ("idiotes," meaning a private person, one who doesn't participate in public affairs). A more accurate translation would be something like "The Man Who Was Wrapped Up in Himself."
There's a restaurant in St. Petersburg called the Idiot Cafe - or at least there was, last time I was there (around 2009).
I really enjoyed The Master and Margarita. I read and reviewed it last year. Here’s my review if you’re interested: https://www.millersbookreview.com/p/bulgakov-master-and-margarita
Ha! Great story.