I haven't stayed up reading all night since I was in seventh grade - until tonight [this morning really]. It isn't often that I sit and read books straight through. There have been a few recently that I desired to do so:
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin,
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, and
The Fountainhead by Ann Rand. And one in which I did: Mikhail Bulgakov's
Heart of a Dog.
Maryna turned me on to Russian literature with
We. This is literature that speaks to me. This is a people who have suffered, who have felt the frustration of the world, who have restrained their anger in the face of frustration. This is a people who have tactfully, accurately, and passionately spoken out against the cause of their frustration, presenting their bane to the world between two covers. I am in awe.
Please note this: I read this work in English, forgiving that something might have been lost in the translation, the book was still
that good. This is a credit to the translator Mirra Ginsburg. The inside cover reveals that she was born in Russia and translates Russian literature for a living. Indeed, the English translation of
We I read was hers. In the future I will not hesitate in the least to read a translation by her. In fact, I will likely seek out other Ginsburg translations of the Russian classics. Maryna tells me that
The Dragon by Dostoyevsky is deep and quite pointed, and I see that she has done a version in English.
Now back to my usual techie drowning - Mac OS 10.3.1 has been released!!
