Tolstoy Lied: A Love Story

One of the most pertinent questions regarding Tolstoy Lied by Rachel Kadish is: Do you need to have read Tolstoy in order to understand the book? The short answer: Sort of. The long answer: You don't need to have read Tolstoy in order to understand the book. But reading Anna Karenina would help you to appreciate Kadish's novel, which in all its glory cannot be fully comprehended and appreciated without knowledge of the tragic story of Anna Karenina and the main message that Tolstoy aimed to convey through that tragic tale. Specifically, the quote "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," plays an integral part in both books. Tolstoy's message is that unhappy people have stories to tell; they are unique and interesting, unhappy in their own ways. Happy people can generally be brushed aside because their tales are like the tale of any other happy person. Therefore, the only stories worth reading are stories about unhappy people. The main character in Tolstoy Lied, Tracy Farber, takes this quote to heart. She sets out on her personal journey determined to prove Tolstoy false; in essence, she wants to prove to the world that Tolstoy lied in the famous opening line of Anna Karenina. As a well-read, intelligent English professor at a small school in upstate New York, Farber asks herself (and everyone around her) why the only books that seem to be lauded critically are books with unhappy endings. Books with happy endings are brushed off as too shallow and superficial to have any real intelligence behind them. And indeed, this does happen quite often in the real world. Book genres such as "chick lit" are brushed off as shallow beach reads, whereas tragic books such as Anna Karenina are hailed as classics and critically lauded. If Tolstoy had not ended the book the way he had chosen (I will not spoil the ending for those of you who have not read Anna Karenina), would it have been lauded as such a masterpiece? Tracy Farber's answer is a resounding "no." Besides her philosophical thoughts on books, Tracy Farber has a multitude of personal issues to deal with as well. From the slightly crazy co-worker who seems bent on making her and her prize graduate student's lives a living hell to George, the reformed fundamentalist Christian whom Tracy finds irresistible, Farber is constantly having to prove Tolstoy's thesis wrong - that she can have a happy life and still have a story worth telling. And it is definitely a struggle. Farber has difficult situations thrown at her out of left field, yet manages to handle them with a grace that Anna Karenina only wished she had. This makes Tracy extremely endearing; by the end of the first 100 pages, the reader is rooting for Tracy Farber, wanting her to prove Tolstoy wrong. And this is where the kudos to Rachel Kadish comes in. In Tolstoy Lied, Kadish manages to write very believable characters that readers can empathize with. She manages to make Tracy funny and witty, yet those cha

Rachel Kadish's novel Tolstoy Lied is a great read, a book that dares to be both extremely funny and generously kind. Kadish writes with wry humor about serious things, yet manages to do it without sacrificing her story on the pseudo-hip altar of sarcasm. It's easy for writers to resort to smug cynicism and biting barbs in order to sound smart and clever, but Kadish skips all that and instead offers up real insight so that we care about her people while also being able to laugh. Forgoing splashy attention-grabbing pyrotechnics that call attention to the author, Kadish stays out of the way and instead focuses on her story, delivering it in pitch-perfect prose that makes the book impossible to put down. And what a juicy story it is. I loved every page, not a false word in here. The outrageous high jinks of academia. The tumultuous ups and downs of adult love. The droll loyalties of exhausted friends. Kadish's hilarious take on a misguided off-off Broadway play about Freud is alone worth the price of admission. I read this book in three nights; my husband (that's right; what's with this 'chick-lit' labeling?) opened it on a plane to the West Coast and said that, for once, the flight was too short.

The author has penned a very engaging and thought-provoking book on a subject that is strangely taboo: an eye's wide open adventure into the jungle of happiness. The craft of Kadish's writing is excellent--I found myself turning the pages to find out what happens next with her very well drawn characters, all the while very much pulled into the drama and intrigue and (very much in abundance) humor that the author has laid out as a satisfying feast. Well worth it!

A worthy novel. . Tolstoy Lied is a brilliant combination of often-opposing genres: it is a lighthearted story about the search for love in stark relief against a backdrop of literary criticism. Tracey, English professor and protagonist of the novel, lives in two words. One world is in the ivory tower of academia, in which personalities collide in unexpected ways. The other is an everywomans' search for romance in the big city. Somehow, Kadish blends the two with apparent ease, and continuously draws lessons and myths from one world into the other. This is a wonderful novel. The format of a love story told in the first person is an interesting choice, and the prose is crafted masterfully. I enjoyed the philosophical musings of Tracey, and more generally, the intellectual spark with which the author writes.

This book is what I imagined Sex and the City would be before I ever saw the show, back when I heard people describing the series as a string of profound, insightful, and witty conversations about love and sex. Obviously, even my overblown expectations for that show didn't dare include a delightfully natural dialogue with literary tradition, though! This story of love, friendship, and light-hearted academic intrigue is profound without once being heavy, and thoughtful without being anything less than accessible. It manages, in fact, to be exactly what the protagonist is searching for in her scholarship -- an intellectually gripping tale of happiness. I can't imagine any woman who has ever loved in the real world not falling in love with Tracy and her story.