A Swim in a Pond in the Rain - In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life (George Saunders, 2021)

(408 pages)

In The Cart

The Singers

The Darling

Master and Man

The Nose

Gooseberries

Alyosha the Pot

Re-read for me, I picked it for book club.  Things I talked about -

A book celebrating these peerless Russian authors and learning to write - or more pertinently to me, to READ.  Seven short stories plus discussion around each.

That made this book well worth some contradictions.  I don’t really love the short story format; you just get used to a few characters and then - it’s over. I was kind of disappointed in some of the stories Saunders selected. I got tired of his preaching.  

The contrast to Lonesome Dove. Big canvas; led me to War & Peace.

Two good rules: Be entertaining.  Advance the story in a non-trivial way.

The Cart - was Marya changed by remembering childhood happily?

The Singers - I really liked this, especially his efforts to describe music (the indescribable, I’ve tried). Keyed to the reactions of the audience, especially the wife (sharp-nosed and quick-eyed tradeswoman). (Kind of rich – in The Singers, he is criticizing Turgenev for running on and on, apparently not understanding that he is doing a far worse job of it himself. Plus, I like Turgenev’s running on!)

Too much analysis = yuck. 

This collection is worth it for Master and Man alone. 

Grappling with spirituality - the moment when the master decides to devote himself. Difficult to write about that something “larger than ourselves” - but it works, quite a moment.

In the first few pages after Master and Man, Saunders talks about opinion and fact, that Tolstoy here is pure fact. Compare War and Peace - all sorts of opinions about Napoleon, war, etc. Here:  “It’s mostly just descriptions of people doing things.”  Perfect. Saunders is helping me read better.

The “facts” of being out in that snow for anyone who’s lived there.  Billy Devine’s corncrib. 

        Page 219. Reminds me of my reaction to the snow drift sections.

        How Tolstoy goes into the master’s mind as he tries to sleep. Everyone familiar with this from night experiences of difficult situations - tell yourself not to think about it; select something happier to think about; keep trying; maybe drift off but there it is again! Saunders discusses section 6 of the story at page 232 (the part where master and man are in the cart overnight).

The Nose - can anyone find something of value either in the story, or in the author’s notes? I liked Dead Souls, but this?

At 331, Chekhov uses the same technique to describe beauty as Turgenev does to describe music in the singers. Here: “The moment when Pelageya stops Ivan and Burkin in their tracks with her good looks.” 

At 336-7 is a key for my readings of Chekhov.  Saunders best work appears here (or is it just because I agree with it?!) The idea of Checkov having clear views, weakly held. Start at “interested in everything but not wedded to any fixed system of belief” and read the highlights.

Refer to page 381 re Russian history. Saunders cites the 70-year explosion (mostly literature but some music)! How does it fit in with Russian Revolution, Stalin, etc. I’ve wondered about this.