Reviews - A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

1.51k reviews for:

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

George Saunders

4.52 AVERAGE

mmathis's review against another edition

3.0

Saunders expounds on several short stories by Russian writers. The stories are read by a variety of celebrities with varying results.

This is the literary equivalent of sitting in on a professor's lecture on Russian literature, parsing individual short stories to make you think about what constitutes good fiction. It's either your thing or it's not, and even after reading it I'm not sure whether it's mine. I can't understand why he opened the book with the most laborious lesson, stopping the story about every 80 words to explicate it. His lessons were good - but I'm coming off the heels of Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and would strongly recommend that first - and otherwise this book is a collection of Russian fiction, and the latter was more enjoyable.

bugsounds's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

dnf @ 28%
It was good, I just don’t think I can finish it right now

ioanaj's review against another edition

5.0

One of the best books I have read in recent years.
I have found Saunders’ interpretation to be far from my own in many places. Nevertheless, because it showed me a different perspective it forced me to reckon with my take and either change it or stand by it.
I think this should be read by everyone who loves reading. One reason would be the terminology of the literary analysis woven subtly and not so subtly into the whole book, but the main reason would be that it makes one think about what reading does to them and their minds.
If you are daunted by the idea that this book is like a university lecture, or something dry and purely theoretical, don’t be: it is a lively, living and thoroughly engaging work. You have my word on it.

georgea_1234's review against another edition

5.0

informative inspiring reflective

nidal's review against another edition

2.0

Veers off on some wild american tangents such as equating the holocaust with *any* revolution, was a trip to read a US mfa analysis of chekov, some useful thoughts if you're into writing and Russian literature tho