YOU-GIN ONE-GIN

Robinson’s multilayered metanarrative follows professors who revive a Russian classic and pursue it to unbelievable conclusions.

A formal editorial foreword from the fictional Liberal State University Press puts the exact authorship of this novel, and the stage version of Alexander Pushkin’s classic 19th-century novel-in-verse Eugene Onegin within it, in doubt—although the work remains attributed to a Douglas Robinson. Readers then dive directly into the play, which updates the Russian masterpiece with contemporary language and a cheeky twist that leaves its characters in search of their own narrator: Pushkin himself. The layers of authorship and identity get thornier as readers meet Professor Kip Knurl, who, in order to properly direct and star in the production, has started living his everyday life as Pushkin: “I don’t ask people to call me Pushkin as a favor,” Kip thinks to himself after an awkward conversation with a charming waitress at the local cafe. “I am Pushkin.” Kip’s dedication to the role goes to such extremes that it jeopardizes his marriage, provokes bizarre, violent reactions from his student castmates, and may have altered reality itself. After a mysterious assassin shoots Kip, the specter of Pushkin himself visits the play’s author, Douglas Robinson—or is it some ghostly version of Kip playing Pushkin—or something extraterrestrial? Real-life author Robinson is clearly having a ball as he gleefully constructs a postmodern roller coaster. He loops between deep comparative-literature questions and slapstick absurdities, such as medically impossible wounds and a violent football game between competitors dressed in lingerie. The story’s many layers can be off-putting at times, however. Readers who are less familiar with Pushkin may feel just as adrift as the book’s ghostly narrators—especially in the lengthy, challenging opening, which demands some knowledge of the original. Literature majors, or fans of self-aware fiction by the likes of David Foster Wallace, will be more likely to gladly untangle the strange knots that Robinson ties.

A clever ride that will be exhilarating for some but exasperating for others.