What are you currently reading?

[bwv 1080]

One of the best accounts of WW2 from the German side I have read - following AG Center through 1941, it combines modern scholarship on the failed overall strategy with on the ground experiences of ordinary soldiers and does not skirt the issue of the Wehrmacht's war crimes and the general enthusiasm of the Lanser for the Nazi mission of Lebensraum.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

I guess I never told my final opinions about Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead. In short, I hated it. This is the first Dostoyevsky book I really disliked.

[JBS]

So far - after 32 pages - it's not my cup of tea. It's a philosophy parody, and as such the novel has no plot and just one "character" whose job is to have nonsensical metaphysical ideas. (Sample: he believes the devil invented stupidity as revenge on humanity - funny - but the revenge is because he does not exist and is displeased about his nonexistence.)

I got a good laugh at the reveal that Lichter is a beggar, and a smirk from his terrible, terrible poetry, but so far the ratio of one brief reward every 10 pages is not great.

Sounds as if it is in the league of At Swim Two Birds.
Which was assigned to us in spring semester of my junior year by a visiting prof as part of a course on 20th century Irish literature, and which the entire class refused to read more than the opening chapters.  It says a lot when you have a roomful of 20/21 year olds, and can not find one who thought the book at least moderately interesting. 
The professor was furious, but being a visiting prof, and being the end of the academic year, there was little he could do about it except display some bad temper.

[aligreto]

I am about one third of the way through Balzac's The Abbé Birotteau and am enjoying it thus far.

[Florestan]

I guess I never told my final opinions about Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead. In short, I hated it. This is the first Dostoyevsky book I really disliked.

Why?

[Florestan]

So far - after 32 pages - it's not my cup of tea. It's a philosophy parody, and as such the novel has no plot and just one "character" whose job is to have nonsensical metaphysical ideas. (Sample: he believes the devil invented stupidity as revenge on humanity - funny - but the revenge is because he does not exist and is displeased about his nonexistence.)

I got a good laugh at the reveal that Lichter is a beggar, and a smirk from his terrible, terrible poetry, but so far the ratio of one brief reward every 10 pages is not great.

Hah! I've been reading the first three chapters online and I found it to be utterly and irredeemably rubbish. As for subversive, I'll take The Emperor's New Clothes, thank you.

This book is pure escapism, a genre which was succesfully --- and understandably --- cultivated back then but that today can have no relevance, importance or value whatsoever.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Why?

Boring, full of sentences that make no sense whatsoever, that seem contradictory. Can't believe a masterful writer like Dostoyevsky wrote this.

[Karl Henning]

I sort of fell into re-reading The Two Towers.  Appreciating all over again how beautifully it is written.

[Florestan]

Boring, full of sentences that make no sense whatsoever, that seem contradictory. Can't believe a masterful writer like Dostoyevsky wrote this.

Are you sure you really read Dostoyevsky's The House of The Dead? (Actually the original Russian title is Memoirs from The House of The Dead) That's not how I recall it, not by a long stretch. Dark, disturbing, morbid, sometimes as if taken straight out of Dante's Inferno --- yes, by all means. But boring and absurd? Sigh. Could it be a matter of translation?

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Could it be a matter of translation?

It could be, I read it in Finnish and the translation was definitely poor - full of typos, for example.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

The finnish translation of the title actually translates roughly as Memoirs from The House of the Dead as well.

[Florestan]

It could be, I read it in Finnish and the translation was definitely poor - full of typos, for example.

Ah, well, that might explain a lot.

Have you read The Gulag Archipelago? Compared to it, The House of The Dead is a description of a walk in the park.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Have you read The Gulag Archipelago?

Not yet.

[Florestan]

Not yet.

I recommend you do it asap --- provided, of course, there is a really good Finnish translation. The reality it describes is much more gruesome than anything Dostoyevsky ever experienced (and probably ever imagined) but paradoxically the style is gentler, more humorous and humane --- reading it I laughed while crying and viceversa. I don't hesitate to nominate it for the best 20-th century book.

Btw, another firm recommendation is Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate --- sort of a War and Peace set during WWII. A masterpiece as well.

Sometimes I ask myself how come that, while I'm being unabashedly and unapologetically Russophobe when it comes to politics, at the same time I'm being unabashedly and unapologetically Russophile when it comes to music and literature. 

[Karl Henning]

... while I'm being unabashedly and unapologetically Russophobe when it comes to politics....

I (and the Russians in my life) consider that in light of plain good sense.

[Florestan]

I (and the Russians in my life) consider that in light of plain good sense.

Please, send all my best to them. If we ever met in person, I'd be glad to buy the gentlemen a glass of vodka and the ladies a glass of whatever they wish (kvass maybe?). 

[Karl Henning]

Please, send all my best to them. If we ever met in person, I'd be glad to buy the gentlemen a glass of vodka and the ladies a glass of whatever they wish (kvass maybe?). 

A nice cup of tea will do handsomely.

[Florestan]

A nice cup of tea will do handsomely.

Duly noted, Karl. And what would you like? 

[bwv 1080]

Btw, another firm recommendation is Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate --- sort of a War and Peace set during WWII. A masterpiece as well.

Have you seen the Russian 2012 miniseries?  Not perfect, but very watchable and available on Amazon Prime in the US

[Florestan]

Have you seen the Russian 2012 miniseries?  Not perfect, but very watchable and available on Amazon Prime in the US

I haven't.