And Quiet Flow the Vodka, or When Pushkin Comes to Shove

The Curmudgeon's Guide to Russian Literature and Culture with The Devil's Dictionary of Received Ideas

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by Alicia Chudo,

Edited by Andrew Sobesednikov

Northwestern University Press

Due/Published June 2000, 232 pages, paper

ISBN 0810117886

Chudo (the pen name of Gary Saul Morson; Sobesednikov is Morson also) has given us the humorous perspective on Russian literature and culture. As Northwestern says:

On the origins of Russian culture: Chudo begins with a look at Russia's medieval epics, including the story of Saints Boris and Gleb, whose do-nothing approach to conflict inspired both the Russian military and the characters in Chekhov's plays.

On Russian writers. Like the tsars, Russian writers can be divided into two categories: the Great (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov) and the Terrible (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and everyone else). Included are Dostoevsky's unfinished novel, "Torture," a revealing example of the feverish master's inability to plot his books; Chekhov's play, "The Dodo" and Gogol's unburned story, "Kleptonasia"; a selection of proletarian poetry (one of the great oxymorons of the twentieth century); and a scene from the Banquet of Russian Writers, where the diners argue over who died in the manner most appropriate for a Russian genius.

On Soviet parliamentary procedure. The applause is always stormy, and the decisions are always unanimous.

ok, ok . . . let's try the "Devil's Dictionary":Abroad: The most prestigious Russian address
Alcoholism: The stage of history between socialism and communism
Barter: The Russian improvement on money
Drunk, officially: In Russian factories: unable to stand
Food: a Russian delicacy
Funeral: An occasion of envy
Imperialism:The highest stage of capitalism and the only stage of socialism
Poland: The country occasionally located between Germany and Russia
Smile: In Eastern Europe, a sign of a fool, a drunk, or an American
Torture: In Russia, the intesnification of normality. Reading Dostoevsky

"There is little that needs saying except bravo! . . . [B]y my lights, this is a brilliant satire that clicks from beginning to end. The book is an intriguing mixture of invented nonsense and quite genuine reflections on the sad history of Russia and the qualities--at once morose and wild--of its literature." --Frederick Crews

Review

Taking the whole of Russian literature and all its pretensions (many of which have been foisted on it by readers and critics), Alicia Chudo with the help of Sobesednikov (both of whom are really Gary Saul Morson) satirize everyone from Bakhtin to Chekhov to Soviet Poets. The parodies, on target and funny, poke fun at critics and the writers themselves. Morson has published for the first time, Gogol’s “Kleptonasia,” Dostoevsky’s unfinished novel, Torture, and a scene from Chekhov’s unknown play The Dodo. Morson’s satirical imagination also whips up an equally funny and insightful dictionary of common figures and terms in Russian history and literary and art criticism (Here’s an example, Bosch, Hieronymus: In Russia: a realist. In Siberia: a senitmentalist). Also not to be missed in this work are some of Kasmir Malevich’s extraordinary illustrations to some of the classics in Russian literature.

In a review of the book, Frederick Crews writes, “There is little that needs saying except bravo!...[B]y my lights this is a brilliant satire that clicks from beginning to end. The book is an intriguing mixture of invented nonsense and quite genuine reflections on the sad history of Russia and the qualities -- at once morose and wild -- of its literature.”