What’s your favorite novel by a Golden Age of Russian Literature author? Impossible to choose? Well, as the designated selector of the first Russian novel for our PKSCA Book Club a few years back, I had no hesitation: Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons. Why? You name it, it’s got it—dueling philosophies, generational conflicts, engaging characters, romantic entanglements, twist & turn plot, eloquent prose…and reasonable length. Our club followed Turgenev with masterpieces by Gogol (The Nose), Lermontov (A Hero of Our Time), Goncharov (Oblomov), Dostoyevsky (Crime and Punishment), Tolstoy (War & Peace), Pushkin (Boris Godunov), and Chekhov (Three Sisters). Soviet masters included Zamyatin (We), Bulgakov (Master and Margarita), Ilf and Petrov (Twelve Chairs), Pasternak (Doctor Zhivago), Solzhenitsyn (One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich), Sholokhov (Quiet Flows the Don/The Don Flows into the Sea). Lastly, some Russia-savvy American authors: Towles (A Gentleman in Moscow), Blankman (The Blackbird Girls), Martin Cruz Smith (Hotel Ukraine). And now full circle back to Turgenev with his introductory novel, Rudin.
What a literary ride it’s been—especially for me, the leader, who felt obliged to read every word of every book (often in Russian as well as English), attend every meeting, organize every discussion. And there’s no way I would have gotten around to reading classics like War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, and Master and Margarita on my own, and in such depth, had I not been in charge of the club. Moreover, without the club, where would the outlet be to share my impressions?
All that said, I’ve decided to step down from the helm. Time for other participants to step up. Moving forward I propose that participants take turns choosing the reading selection (anything relating to Russia) and perhaps take turns chairing the meetings. What I do know is this: I’ll continue to participate, but no longer as Book Club Tsar.
Visit the PKSCA Book Club page for more, including a Zoom Link to the meeting and Discussion Questions prepared by our moderator Alan Ellis.