Gogol

Last night I stopped by the Biography bookstore. I was en route to Magnolia Bakery wth L. We always seem to end up there. I was looking for a copy of Gogol's short stories, having just read Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake. I haven't read "The Overcoat" since college. The only Gogol they had was Dead Souls. I picked it up and a man working there said it was a very funny novel. He then said if I was looking for a great Russian novel, I should read The Master and Margarita. I told him I had.

Later, I mentioned to L. that I wanted to re-read The Brothers Karamazov. The same clerk told me that there was a new translation that he thought almost improved on the original. Dostoyevski wasn't really known as a stylist, he remarked.

In the end, I bought Dead Souls. The clerk told me the book was written in Italy, as Gogol was going mad. Gogol never finished the second part f the book. As we were leaving, L. said to the clerk, You seem to know a lot about Russian literature. The clerk smiled sheepishly. Yeah, he said. It's kinda my major. Posted by eku at February 17, 2004 5:29 PM