Russian Literature

 

I have often wondered why, in the early 1990s, I became obsessed with Russian literature. It seemed to happen out of the blue. I always just assumed that the overpowering strength of the work was reason enough--and it is, of course. But I also suspected that there was more to it than that.

Writing in 1995, Alfred Kazin observed: "The 'Russian novel,' if that still means anything, is being lived all over this country [i.e., the United States] in poverty, racial conflict, homelessness, drug addiction, and the increasing numbers of so-called redundant workers thrown into the streets every week by one technological replacement after another" (Kazin, Writing Was Everything, 149).

There is my answer.