The Ladies from St. Petersburg: Three Novellas

Ms. Nina Berberova was an unknown writer to me prior to my reading of, "The Ladies Of St. Petersburg". Happily she no longer is an unknown. Ms. Berberova presents three novellas in this work, all of which are very well done. My comment about starting with this particular work is that it contains an extensive 14 page Foreword by Ms. Marian Schwartz who translated the work of this woman who wrote throughout her 92-year life. This section includes a great deal of biographical information, as well as explaining some of the difficulties involved in translating the work and deciphering the Author's originally intended symbolism.All three novellas are wonderful, and they all are quite different from one another. Even the first two that are many things but are not joyous, are still are very different. "The Ladies From St. Petersburg" covers a great swath of time and History, which it is recounted in so few pages, and feels so complete when read is remarkable. The main event is not new or unique, however Ms. Berberova adds a circumstance that takes a routine if unhappy event, and makes it almost grotesque.The second work, "Zoya Andreyevna", has the largest cast of players and provides a setting for a wide exposition of human character traits, and the tale will not leave you filled with optimism. The final work, "The Big City" is quite different, appears autobiographical and looks forward to a future that while seemingly positive still reads as though the character sees the future through shades of gray. New times are approaching, they will be better, or will at least seem to be. There is a fascinating bit when a set of binoculars are much more than an optical instrument, and become more like a crystal ball manipulated by the user and perhaps their owner.Three great Novellas, which suggest that pursuing this writer's work, is definitely worthwhile.

OK, I admit to a slight prejudice (I'm the translator's proud brother), but don't take my word for it. The NY Times put it on their Best of '98 list. I don't know any Russian beyond a few guidebook phrases and isolated words that pop up in Russian songs and James Bond novels. All I ask of a translation is that it give me the sense that I'm reading great literature. I usually don't know enough - as in this case - to comment on accuracy or to nit-pick connotations. What my "reader's voice" gives me is the sound of a masterpiece, different from the sound of the translator's own prose (read the wonderful introductory memories of Berberova). The three stories collected here weren't meant as a trilogy and are separated by years and, in the case of the last, by several decades. The first two reminded me of Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Illych," with their satiric and grotesque edge on death and illness. The last seemed to me more modern, even somewhat like Kafka, in its phantasmagoria. I must admit to liking the third story -- about an immigrant in New York City - best. Berberova is good and even funny on the disorientation of the newcomer, but also romantic (and Romantic) about the city's attraction and mystery. The book is filled with passages of virtuoso storytelling - all of which seem to point to a big nature that could easily create a novel. In the first, a description of a burial stands out. In the second, a sick woman is taken out of a rooming house run by almost fairy-tale witches to a hospital. In the third, the immigrant is given a pair of (magic?) binoculars by someone who reminds me strongly of a wizard in a cave and is shown a series of powerful, disturbing images - realistic and fantastic at the same time. I have to bring up classic masters to remind myself of anything this good. Berberova's a thrilling find.