Chekhov's Journey [Hardcover]

Ian Watson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In present-day Russia, a movie production team uses an experimental technique to hypnotize an actor into thinking he is Anton Chekhov. While he is in a trance, they plan to question him about Chekhov's 1890 trek into Siberia, as background for the film they are making. To everyone's astonishment, the actor, transported into Chekhov's body, relives the author's experiences relating to the possible crash of a comet in the Tunguska region in 1908, the incident somehow relocated to 1888. Meanwhile, he is also tapping into the life of Anton Astrov, captain of a future spaceship which might be responsible for the Tunguska explosion. Watson ( Alien Embassy ) continues his speculations into the nature of reality in this highly readable tale, enhanced by believable characters and authoritative plotting, and remarkable for the realistic detail he brings to each of the timelines. Originally published in the U.K. in 1983, this book's appearance in the U.S. is long overdue.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A problem with speculative fiction is that too often ideas trample plot, character, and the irony of situation. Watson has avoided these pitfalls, instead producing a literate, witty work that is subtle, thoughtful, and clever. A hypnotist is hired by a Russian film team to work with an actor who will star as Anton Chekhov. The aim is to imbue the spirit of Chekhov into the actor on a subconscious level, thereby enhancing the film. The idea works too well. Time and reality begin altering through the actor, who is now Chekhov past, present, and future. History and the story achieve a sort of climax at Tunguska, the Siberian site of unexplained explosions in 1890, 1908, and 2090. Highly recommended.
- Joseph Levandoski, Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 183 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub; First Edition edition (October 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 088184523X
• ISBN-13: 978-0881845235
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,419,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 'Chekhov's journey' by Ian Watson, April 1, 2004

By 

hendrik de smet (Leuven, Belgium) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chekhov's Journey (Paperback)

Ian Watson's "Chekhov's journey" could be described as an ironic critique on ideology and the malleability of history, blended with metaphysical playfulness. A science fiction novel, "Chekhov's journey" narrates the story of a future, time-travelling spacecraft getting into trouble and causing the (historically documented) Tunguska-explosion in Siberia around the turn of the 19th century. At the same time, the novel presents the reader with a Soviet film crew who set out to make a film commemorating Anton Chekhov's historical journey to Siberia (also around the turn of the 19th century), and who use new hypnotic techniques to make an actor relive Anton Chekhov's experiences. However, this experiment, too, goes badly wrong, and the actor impersonating Chekhov starts producing a history that is profoundly unhistorical. The different sub-plots get interwoven in interesting ways, but it is up to the curious reader to find out exactly how...

By way of appreciation, what recommends Ian Watson's novel is (I feel) its ability to combine its science fiction plot of time travel with an ironic vision of history, which is in principle formed by factual historical events, but, in fact, turns out to be extremely unreliable. That is, history can be changed by future generations - something that is true in a very literal sense in the case of time travel, but that is also true as far as any representation of history is concerned. The Soviet film crew is quite painfully confronted with this fact, and struggles (rather comically) to find the "safe" rather than the "true" version of history.

Another of the novel's strong points is the way the different sub-plots are presented to the reader. The novel continually switches from one sub-plot to the other (a formal reflection, perhaps, of the thematic confusion of different time-levels). The result is a highly varied whole; and it is probably this technique which keeps keeps the reader curious for what the next chapter will have to offer.

A minor point of criticism, perhaps; some of the novel's characters remain a little sketchy - which is perhaps due to the concentration of ideas in the story. I found this not troubling, however. The novel is certainly very enjoyable, and thought-provoking, without ever being dull or hard to read. I definitely recommend this book.