Alan Ellis took over leadership of the Book Club a couple years ago with the hope of broadening participation in PKSCA via Russian literary classics. And off we went into the Golden Age of Russian Literature—discussing Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, Gogol’s The Nose, Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time, Goncharov’s Oblomov, Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Tolstoy’s War and Peace (discussed over a 4-month period)—and the next year, Soviet masterpieces—Zamlyatin’s We, Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, Ilf & Petrov’s Twelve Chairs, Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, Sholokhov’s And Quiet Flows the Don followed by its sequel The Don Flows Home to the Sea (both discussed over a 4-month period). But the results have been mixed: On the encouraging side, our bimonthly discussions (mostly in English, but occasionally in Russian as well) have been vibrant and insightful, with an eclectic group of contributors running the gamut from native Russians to non-natives with knowledge of Russian to Americans with no knowledge of Russian. Yet the club has remained small in number and mostly unsuccessful in attracting new participants.
Which leads us to our current reading selection, A Gentleman in Moscow by American author Amor Towles, a worldwide bestseller that hopefully can serve to motivate participation in our club. With a charming, suspenseful storyline, a potpourri of colorful characters, and a theme that ties in perfectly with previous club selections about living life under extraordinary circumstances before, during, and after the Russian Revolution, we can’t think of a better way to get the ball rolling.
Discussion of A Gentleman in Moscow will be on the evening of Thursday, March 27th via Zoom, beginning at 7:00 Portland time. See Book Club page for details.