Janet Malcolm contributes the latest polemic against Richard Pevear and Linda Volokhonsky (hereafter P&V), the famed husband-and-wife translators of the Russian classics, whose preeminence in their field is now being challenged by a number of critics. I have read the previous arguments with interest (for instance, by Gary Saul Morson and Helen Andrews), but they … Continue reading In Defense of Pevear and Volokhonsky
Tag: leo tolstoy
God Help the Child by Toni Morrison My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a fine novel. Not perfect, not even really complete in a writing-workshop "craft" sense, but surely Morrison's best since Love. God Help the Child is a striking example of Saidian late style: the furious and unresolved valediction. God Help the … Continue reading Toni Morrison, God Help the Child
To get evaluation out of the way, I'll say I liked it. Of course I liked it! It was more or less an entertainment, a revel for the bookish. Target audience: Rory Gilmore. Who can resist! There are really two twists to Anna Karenina. First is Joe Wright's conceit of aristocratic social life as theater. … Continue reading Notes on Anna Karenina (2012)
