Sunday, October 1, 2023, 3-4:30 pm Pacific
SPECIAL GUEST: Lisa C. Hayden, Translator
Discussion Facilitator: Igor Mikhaylov
Question for Igor and Lisa:
“Klotsvog” doesn’t sound like any Jewish name I’ve every heard, and not like the other Jewish surnames in the book. To a Ukrainian and Russian speaker, what do you make of this name? Is it supposed to be comical? What is its specific “feel" or connotation?
Question for Lisa and open to the group:
Would you consider Klotsvog to be a book in the Russian literary tradition? I’m reading George Saunders’ wonderful book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, in which he characterizes the 19th and early 20th century Russian literary tradition (using examples of stories by Chekov, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Gogol) as focused on moral questions—the “big questions,” such as the meaning of life. How does the author speak in, to, or against this tradition?
Questions for all:
1. What passages, episodes, moments, quotes, etc. grabbed your attention? Can you share one and talk about why it spoke to you?
2. Klotsvog is described as “darkly comical.” Is it comical? In what sense? Examples? Why is it possibly NOT comical, to you?
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