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mouhy's review
4.0
Can't wait to read more of Nina Berberova's works. Yet another novel that could've been written about the Syrian diaspora today. This release by Pushkin Press couldn't have come at a better time.
saraheholtom's review
challenging
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
levitybooks's review
1.0
Video Review here (Youtube link)
I'd like to thank Pushkin Press for this free ARC, and for taking the initiative to translate this debut work from a female author whose influence is not widely known in the Western world.
Regrettably, I cannot recommend this book, and would go so far as to say I do not think it will be well received if published in its current form. I chose to read this as I enjoy Russian writing, and was surprised at how low the ratings for this book were on GoodReads. Given the current users did not write reviews on GoodReads, I figured perhaps this ARC was being misrepresented by ARC reviewers, and I thought I would come and support this story. However, I only ended up confirming the consensus.
Frankly, I think this story will be incoherent to a Western audience. My understanding is that this is a story about uncertainty surrounding which family members from a Russian farm want to emigrate to Paris. One farmer stays ("A First", leaving their homeland for something new) and two return to Russia ("Last", returning to Russia). If that doesn't sound underwhelming enough, it was not entirely clear to me what the motivation for them leaving is, nor what the threat a character called Adolf Alexeivitch or Kellerman is posing to one of the farmers, Vasya, in emigrating to France. A lot of this, I think, is due to the content of the story itself. The Translator's Note suggests this is due to Russians wanting to flee the Revolution and Civil War, but the story does not seem to go heavily into detail on this, or it is so fleetingly mentioned that it was not obvious to me from this translation. If anything, the motivation of the farmers' emigration seems to be that they want to marry people in the other locations.
A big clue for why I think this story will be unenjoyable is the second sentence, as reproduced verbatim below:
This sentence introduces far too much at once. The problem is there are too many redundant characters and relationships in this story — it is arguably the entire content of the story. It is difficult for Western readers to remember these names, and it gets more complicated when many characters go by multiple names. For instance, it was not immediately obvious to me that Alyusha, Shaibin, and Alexei Ivanovich were the same person, and it is not clear why multiple references were needed. There is also nothing memorable about the personality or motivations of any characters in this story.
Another major issue that compounds this initial issue, particularly with this translation, is that pronouns aren't clarified enough for us to know who is talking or about whom people are talking. There will be 3 names mentioned and then 'he' in the sentence, and because nobody actively does anything in the story the emphasis is not enough for readers to infer who is being referenced.
There are relatively few typographical errors, the most systematic is a random space added before or after quotation marks, and sometimes in the middle of words. However, it was alarming that these were found in the main quotable sentences of the text, responsible for the story's title:
Finally, I mean no disrespect, but to me I think the translation reads like broken English. One can tell from picking any paragraph of this book that it is a translation. That I found Ayn Rand's Anthem more fluent than this indicates the translation might not be best conveying the author's writing ability to a Western audience. I'd also think this translation could generally be made simpler for Western readers given the number of the characters and writing style already. It could also be given more cultural context, as sentences about one's homeland and seeing freedom as a negative... I think these could be better supported with more cultural context. For example, I read the debut translation of The Impudent Ones earlier this year and the translator made clear in the introduction that due to the already ambiguous nature of the story (similar to what we have here) they had added and modified content to make it more coherent. I think the same approach would make this better received, but that may be down to the preferences of the translator.
—
I'd like to thank Pushkin Press for this free ARC, and for taking the initiative to translate this debut work from a female author whose influence is not widely known in the Western world.
Regrettably, I cannot recommend this book, and would go so far as to say I do not think it will be well received if published in its current form. I chose to read this as I enjoy Russian writing, and was surprised at how low the ratings for this book were on GoodReads. Given the current users did not write reviews on GoodReads, I figured perhaps this ARC was being misrepresented by ARC reviewers, and I thought I would come and support this story. However, I only ended up confirming the consensus.
Frankly, I think this story will be incoherent to a Western audience. My understanding is that this is a story about uncertainty surrounding which family members from a Russian farm want to emigrate to Paris. One farmer stays ("A First", leaving their homeland for something new) and two return to Russia ("Last", returning to Russia). If that doesn't sound underwhelming enough, it was not entirely clear to me what the motivation for them leaving is, nor what the threat a character called Adolf Alexeivitch or Kellerman is posing to one of the farmers, Vasya, in emigrating to France. A lot of this, I think, is due to the content of the story itself. The Translator's Note suggests this is due to Russians wanting to flee the Revolution and Civil War, but the story does not seem to go heavily into detail on this, or it is so fleetingly mentioned that it was not obvious to me from this translation. If anything, the motivation of the farmers' emigration seems to be that they want to marry people in the other locations.
A big clue for why I think this story will be unenjoyable is the second sentence, as reproduced verbatim below:
Alexei Ivanovich Shaibin, one of its many heroes, turned up at the Gorbatovs'; Vasya, the Gorbatov son, offspring of Stepan Vasilievich and Vera Kirillovna and stepbrother of Ilya Stepanovich, received a letter from Paris, from his friend Adolf Kellerman, with important news about Vasya's father; and finally, a poor wayfarer and his guide arrived at the Gorbatovs' farm in a broad valley of the Vaucluse.
This sentence introduces far too much at once. The problem is there are too many redundant characters and relationships in this story — it is arguably the entire content of the story. It is difficult for Western readers to remember these names, and it gets more complicated when many characters go by multiple names. For instance, it was not immediately obvious to me that Alyusha, Shaibin, and Alexei Ivanovich were the same person, and it is not clear why multiple references were needed. There is also nothing memorable about the personality or motivations of any characters in this story.
Another major issue that compounds this initial issue, particularly with this translation, is that pronouns aren't clarified enough for us to know who is talking or about whom people are talking. There will be 3 names mentioned and then 'he' in the sentence, and because nobody actively does anything in the story the emphasis is not enough for readers to infer who is being referenced.
There are relatively few typographical errors, the most systematic is a random space added before or after quotation marks, and sometimes in the middle of words. However, it was alarming that these were found in the main quotable sentences of the text, responsible for the story's title:
He re he is, this first among firsts, was what occurred to him.
Wh at kind of man was he? He was a "last," as Nyusha put it.
Finally, I mean no disrespect, but to me I think the translation reads like broken English. One can tell from picking any paragraph of this book that it is a translation. That I found Ayn Rand's Anthem more fluent than this indicates the translation might not be best conveying the author's writing ability to a Western audience. I'd also think this translation could generally be made simpler for Western readers given the number of the characters and writing style already. It could also be given more cultural context, as sentences about one's homeland and seeing freedom as a negative... I think these could be better supported with more cultural context. For example, I read the debut translation of The Impudent Ones earlier this year and the translator made clear in the introduction that due to the already ambiguous nature of the story (similar to what we have here) they had added and modified content to make it more coherent. I think the same approach would make this better received, but that may be down to the preferences of the translator.
—
This is my 12th advanced reader copy (ARC) review. This means I received this ebook for free, and read it on my old Amazon Kindle, in exchange for this review which I have also published on Netgalley. I'm not financially motivated, as I read library books, so I only read ARCs I actually think will be good enough for me to rate and review honestly.
oliwier's review
2.0
Thank you netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for a review
I was excited to read this book because the summary sounded interesting, but I was disappointed.
Some parts were poetic, but overall I wasn't a big fan of the prose (but it could also be linked to the translation), but most importantly I struggled to keep track of who was who, how the characters were linked and what was happening to them.
I was excited to read this book because the summary sounded interesting, but I was disappointed.
Some parts were poetic, but overall I wasn't a big fan of the prose (but it could also be linked to the translation), but most importantly I struggled to keep track of who was who, how the characters were linked and what was happening to them.
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