A crisp, conversational translation that makes Chekhov’s words sing.
An actor and director delivers a fresh translation of Chekhov’s classic play.
A comedy with its share of tragic elements, Chekhov’s famous drama has been a staple at theaters around the world for over a century. Here, debut translator Korenev presents a new version for English readers meant to capture the poetry and wit of the original. The play follows a group of artists (and would-be artists) and lovers (and would-be lovers) at a Russian country estate. The actress Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina is there with her lover, the famous writer Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin. Irina’s adult son, Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplev, is an aspiring playwright who stages an experimental (if poorly received) work for everyone’s enjoyment. The play stars local girl Nina Zarechnaya, who dreams of one day becoming a famous actress. Konstantin loves Nina; she is infatuated with Trigorin; and a number of other characters pine after one another in myriad combinations. Drama ensues, as it is wont to do. Before long, there are attempted suicides, contemplated duels, and the very strange gift of a dead seagull. Korenev, who was to play Trigorin in a Covid-19–delayed New York production that he was set to direct, translated the drama himself, in part as a way to get into the head of his writerly role. He succeeds in capturing Chekhov’s concise elegance in fresh, accessible English, as here where Trigorin offers Nina his famous musing on the dead seagull: “An idea for the plot of a short story: a young woman, like you, has lived by a lake since she was a child; loves the lake like a seagull, and is happy and free like the seagull. But by chance a man came along, saw her, and, because he had nothing to do, he destroyed her, like that seagull.” Readers will be struck by how contemporary the dialogue sounds, even given its remote setting. This clarity helps make Chekhov’s insight and humor shine all the brighter. Whether readers are familiar with the play or coming to it for the first time, Korenev’s clean and balanced rendering provides a wonderful experience. One hopes he is able to take it to the stage soon.
A crisp, conversational translation that makes Chekhov’s words sing.Pub Date: April 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-953608-00-0
Page Count: 158
Publisher: Anton Korenev Entertainment
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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