Thursday, July 4, 2013

Anton Chekhov stories

I started reading this sometime early in the spring when it was still cold outside. I didn't finish them until I was on the flight back from my Utah backpacking trip yesterday. There were some nights before step 1 where I would only read a paragraph or two before passing out each night.

The Death of a Clerk
Small Fry
The Huntsman
The Malefactor
Panikhida
Anyuta
Easter Night
Vanka
Sleepy
A Boring Story
Gusev
Peasant Women
The Fidget
In Exile
Ward No. 6
The Black Monk
Rothschild's Fiddle
The Student
Anna on the Neck
The House with the Mezzanine
The Man in a Case
Gooseberries
A Medical Case
The Darling
On Official Business
The Lady with the Little Dog
At Christmastime
In the Ravine
The Bishop
The Fiance

So there really were a fair number of stories. Many of them gave me homesick feelings toward Ukraine. Chekhov portrays the sharp edges of poverty and second/third world survival simultaneously commenting on the bleakness wealth without goodness.

I am enchanted at the beginning of each story by how Chekhov sets the scene, from the sounds to the smells, I slip into the scene and can embrace the normalcy of the thoughts and dialog that takes place in each locale.