Russian Novels

I am not reviewing any specific books this week, being only half way through rereading War and Peace, which I first read at least 30 years ago. That experience led me to read almost any of the older Russian novels I could find. There are unique common threads to most of them, with deep philosophical musings, dark themes of deprivation, separation, death, endurance of extreme hardships, spiritual yearnings without specific dogmas, and the meaning of good and evil. But they all also demonstrate a certain ability to appreciate and find profound joy in small experiences of nature and human connections. Almost none have the fanciful sudden and unpredictable plot twists of popular modern murder mysteries although there are lots of murders. Like the modern novel set in Moscow, A Gentleman In Moscow, the beauty of all of these books is in relating more to the characters than to the plot. One of my all-time favourite movies is Dr Zhivago, based on Boris Pasternak’s novel with the hauntingly beautiful theme song of longing, Somewhere My Love. There must be something in the Russian psyche that uniquely resonates with mine but I am not sure how to describe it.

War and Peace, Fathers and Sons, Anna Karinena, The Brothers Karamazov, A Day in the Life Of Ivan Deisovitch, The Idiot, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Gulag Archipelago, Cancer Ward, August 1914- it is difficult for me to pick a favourite, but none have disappointed. I have not read the works of playwrights and poets Checkoff and Pushkin. It probably depends on one’s mood at the time, but if I had to pick one, I would choose either War and Peace (for about 60 hours of reading) , or One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch (for about six hours). So next week I will muse further on the former after I have completed the reread.