Highly Recommended Book

I just finished reading Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev. What a great book. Bazarov, Turgenev’s “nihilist,” is one of the most fascinating characters I’ve come across in a book in some time. He seems so different from the post-modern character I feel like I’m bombarded with again and again – broken, despairing, disillusioned, angst-ridden and weak. The post-modern character is epitomized in Carver’s “Cathedral”. Almost useless, but capable of a slight redemption – or was that just the pot and booze? It seems like so many people have taken “Cathedral” as their model for what a character goes through.

Bazarov is no sword-wielding hero. He is quite flawed in many ways. But, he’s strong, arrogant, confident and, for me, altogether a new thing on the page – though he made his debut in the Nineteenth Century.

If you’re looking for a good book to read, check out Fathers and Sons. Weighing in at 164 pages, it’s a quick read compared to most Russian novels.

It’s funny, but after reading Turgenev, I started a book of short stories by a contemporary writer. It feels like more of the same ol' schtick. Characters start in weakness and end in a little less weakness – but still weakness. Compared to Turgenev, this collection of short stories feels like Literature Lite.