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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Chudo, the pen name of Gary Saul Morson (Slavic languages and literature, Northwestern Univ.), has written a satirical survey of Russian civilization that is pure fun. Readers should not seek information here, for the book presupposes a good knowledge of Russian history and a thorough dislike of the pretentiousness of official interpretations. The author first gives a history of Russian literature in which most of the names and titles sound just a little different from those readers will remember but now have often ironic meanings. For example, Galicia becomes Garlicia, and the Russian scholar Vinogradov (meaning from the vineyard ) appears as Vinopianov ( wine-drunk ). Chudo analyzes such literary masterpieces as War and Punishment and Nose from the Underground. David Senzel!s The Russians: Victims of History from Yaroslavl to Yeltsin (Book Guild, 1997) also aims at a humorous discussion of Russian civilization yet mistakenly sticks to the facts; unfortunately, as Nikolai Gogol noted, Russian facts are boring. Highly recommended for all Russian studies collections."Bert Beynen, Des Moines Area Community Coll., Ankeny, IO
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Russian history and literature get a good thrashing from truly grouchy Professor Chudo, assisted by editor Sobesednikov--both of whom are official pseudonyms of Russian Lit maven Gary S. Morson.Steppe by steppe, we learn from this elaborate put-on--and put-down--about the Russian national drink (vodka), national philosophy (vodka), national song (Vodka!), and most recent Five-Year Plan (anti-Semitism). Obscurity becomes lucid and vice versa. Obviously Chudo knows a lot of arcane stuff about the Slavic intelligentsia and does her utmost to protect us from it. From the graves of academe she delivers the ultimate in literary criticism. This seminal satirical study works out convoluted textual analysis and analyzes textual convolutions: included are several treasures like a new Gogol tale (clearly from the hand of the master) and an undoubted story by Dostoevsky (from the hand of the same master). Along with many footnotes and shameless wordplay, there's real verisimilitude to what might, at first glance, pass for a junior college's selection of an appropriate sophomore textbook. All of the Russias is a large target, and this spoof hits it. Unfortunately, other traits of Russian letters (feckless torpor and ennui) emerge in the appended material of comments regarding the Russian language, some faux advertising, a spotty chronology, and a comic dictionary (festooned with much doggerel) in the mode of Flaubert and Bierce. Chudo would have done well to recall her reference to a 19th-century novel so tedious that even its translator didn't read it. Nevertheless, the main text, often as nimble as Nijinsky, disses the Slavs in a manner that will certainly cause a lot of academic hilarity and possibly, as an American-Zionist provocation, a major diplomatic incident. Despite an underdone potato or two, this rich comic serving of borscht will be deemed savory by many a Department of Russian Studies. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Amusing, but no "1066 and All That",
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This review is from: And Quiet Flows the Vodka: or When Pushkin Comes to Shove: The Curmudgeon's Guide to Russian Literature with the Devil's Dictionary of Received Ideas (Paperback)
If you swallow the hype, and go in expecting this book to on a level with "1066 and All That" you will be disappointed. "Chudo" has failed to absorb the lesson that "brevity is the soul of wit", a philosophy that helps make "1066 and All That" the wonderful book it is. There are certainly humorous moments in this book, but there are also long stretches that try too hard without every really getting funny. The "dictionary" at the end has far more duds than truly funny entries. If you love Russian literature you should probably take a look at this book, but don't expect to fall out of your chair laughing very often.
11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Academic Pretentiousness at its Most Nauseating,
This review is from: And Quiet Flows the Vodka: or When Pushkin Comes to Shove: The Curmudgeon's Guide to Russian Literature with the Devil's Dictionary of Received Ideas (Paperback)
I'm sorry to rain on Gary Saul Morson's parade of academic pretentiousness, but I found the book misleading and troubling on many levels. It is a classic example of what has gone terribly wrong with Slavic Studies in our country. Morson, a distinguished teacher and scholar of Russian literature, has a brilliant mind, a fierce wit, and a tin ear for Russian art and history. That is why all of his books--including And Quiet Flows the Vodka (a cliched parody of Mikhail Sholokhov's classic novel, And Quiet Flows the Dawn)--tend to be extremely clever on an intellectual level, yet insensitive to the human concerns of Russian literature and the tragic spirit of Russian history. Professor Morson loves Russian literature because it has provided him with a career worth of material to teach us what Professor Morson thinks about the world; he does not seem to love Russian literature on its own terms, for what it tries to illuminate about Russian history or the human condition.
For his convictions Fyodor Dostoevsky spent 5 years in a Siberian prison camp. Leo Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church. Alexander Solzhenitsyn spent eight years as a political prisoner in the Gulag, and he was eventually exiled from his homeland by the Soviet government. The poet Nikolai Gumilev was executed before a firing squad for his anti-Soviet beliefs. Professor Morson, who is comfortably ensconced as a tenured professor at Northwestern University, has not, to my knowledge, put his professorship (or his life) on the line for his convictions. He probably cannot quite relate to the kind of spiritual courage demonstrated by the Russian artists he mocks. Still, his sense of decency and integrity might have compelled him at least to pay some tribute, however small, to this important dimension of the subject he "covers." Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov all had an ear for the ironic and comedic aspects in Russian life, no less than Professor Morson. But they were also great humanists, who tried to tell the whole truth about the world they described, and who courageously fought for what they believed to be right and just. It is well-known fact that Professor Morson speaks Russian very poorly, and he relies almost exclusively on English translations for his books and articles about Russian literature. How deeply can he possibly feel the spirit of Russian literature, and how sincerely are his efforts to truly know Russia on its own terms, if he cannot be bothered, after nearly fifty years, to learn the language of his specialty? And now, at the pinnacle of his illustrious career, his first and only book for a general audience is a sly, derisive, self-aggrandizing romp through the painful wounds of Russian history, rather than a sincere effort to try to help Americans discover what is worth knowing about the country and the culture to which he has dedicated his life. Is this what a distinguished career as a professor of Russian Literature at a top American University amounts to? I hope that Professor Morson will find time to learn Russian, to make his way to the country he claims to know, and to observe with his heart as well as his head what Russian history is all about. Until he does, he will remain a mediocre humorist and a source of continued misunderstanding about one of the world's most fascinating and important cultures.
9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A vicious attack on academia and Russia's place in it,
By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: And Quiet Flows the Vodka: or When Pushkin Comes to Shove: The Curmudgeon's Guide to Russian Literature with the Devil's Dictionary of Received Ideas (Paperback)
I too am shocked and outraged that such a book was allowed to appear. Haven't we staffed all our Slavic Departments with ardent Russophiles, elbowing out everybody who babbled something about changing times? I thought we have wiped out once and for all the pernicious critics of things Russian, all those de Custines who, you know, were all homosexuals and probably worse. If I knew who the coward hiding under the pen name of Professor Chudo was, I would have denounced him to the FSK!
The long-suffering Russia received a slap in the face in this book. Invaded so many times, betrayed by her friends, this kind and gentle nation never fought a war (unless invaded), never hurt anyone, and it has always treated old people with respect. Moreover, the book fails to mention that in the eighteenth century, Russia already had great writers and more. Elena Petukhova
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