CHEKHOV'S SISTER

by W.D. Wetherell ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 14, 1990

An absorbing novel-cum-four-act play about the confrontation between Chekhov's sister, who wants to keep open her Chekhov museum, and German forces in Yalta in WW II. Upon his death, Anton Chekhov leaves his fortune and Yalta house to Maria Pavlovna, who devotes herself first to creating and then to sustaining a museum in his honor. Though laced with flashbacks, the story is set mostly at the museum in WW II: Peter Kunin (one of the point-of-view characters, ""not an artist but a servant to art"") works with Maria and destroys ""anything that would offend the Germans,"" hanging Goethe in Tolstoy's place. Other characters include Varka, the maid, who lived a life of hardship until Maria rescued her, and who watches Maria struggle through the Civil War to protect Chekhov's villa and to establish the museum; Tanya, who despises Maria's attempt to keep the museum a going concern by toadying first to the Soviets and then to the Germans; and Major Diskau, a Chekhov enthusiast and German Minister of Culture who intercedes to protect the museum and to stage Chekhov's plays in the old Imperial Theater. The play involves rehearsals for The Seagull and is interspersed with intrigue as Kunin decides to become a partisan and plans to shoot Diskau. Though the conclusion dissipates the novel's energy with melodrama, the play--which contrasts lines from Chekhov with asides from the actors and actresses--resonates in context. A bit long for what it accomplishes, especially toward the finish, but, still, this latest from Wetherell (Hyannis Boat, 1989, etc.) is an elegant, imaginative gloss on the way a great artist's legacy can be simultaneously served and subverted.

Pub Date: March 14, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1990

Categories: FICTION