Customer Reviews

Sunstroke: Selected Stories

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American and English readers don't generally know the the works of Ivan Bunin, although educated Russians know and love his poetry and short stories, and often can quote them by heart. These stories, unobtrusively translated anew by Graham Hettlinger, vary in length from a couple of pages ('Summer Day', which neatly limns the cruelty arising from boredom) to the seventeen pages of Bunin's best known story, 'The Gentleman from San Francisco.' Most of them, some appearing in English for the first time, are really little more than sharply-etched vignettes which adroitly catch humanity in its variety; sometimes you'll catch your breath with the shock of recognition. If you respond to Chekhov's stories, you'll like these.

These selected short stories include Ivan Bunin's better known 'Gentleman from San Francisco' along with over twenty other newly-translated stories - some for the first time in English. Bunin's language is filled with sparkling descriptions and metaphors: vivid images fairly leap from the page as individuals and circumstances spring to life. His vivid descriptions are not to be missed.

I was looking for Bunin's short stories in English to buy as a present for a person who was not familiar with Bunin's work. I have reviewed several translators' work, but was not satisfied with their translation of original text until I found this book. What I liked about it is that the language used in this book reflects the unique Bunin's style, and all nuances of Russian language. This translation was the closest to original Russian edition I found. Frankly, when I was reading it, I forgot that I am reading it in English. If that's what you are looking for in a translated edition, I would definitely recommend this book.

This is the second collection of short stories by Ivan Bunin that I have read. I'm not exactly sure what to make of him as an author. He's good but just how good may take me a few more volumes to discover. I enjoyed the stories in this book, by and large. I had the opportunity to read "The Gentleman from San Francisco" again and I did so mainly because I wasn't all that impressed with it the first time around. I came away this time with a continuing sense that it is an over-rated moral story on a subject that has often been handled better by others.

What struck me most was the erotic nature of so many of his stories. Bunin must have been something of a rake in his life (or else he has taken time to write down a lot of his fantasies). I must admit that he handled these tales of sexual encounters well although he lost me for much of "Zoyka and Valeriya". I especially enjoyed "Muza", "Rusya", "Antigone", "In Paris".

There are several other stories that are artfully done. I liked the wisdom to be found in "Old and Young", the irony of "The Hunchback's Affair" and "First Class" and the sadness of "Cold Fall".

These stories are rather short yet they convey a lot. I will be more than willing to read Bunin again because he is talented. However, I think one of the earlier reviewers was on the mark in suggesting that Bunin's award was politically motivated.

The Nobel Committee was not immune from political correctness in 1933, as the Literature Prize has been a political game for AT LEAST the last 50 years.

Bunin won the 1933 Nobel Prize for Literature, but we all know that the Literature prize is primarily a political statement (in this case against the Soviet Union that had banned Bunin's work). Bunin's stories are beautiful, lyrical, like poetry written in prose form. In fact, many of his shortest stories are nearly written in blank verse. However, there is a reason why Bunin is "underappreciated." His stories are highly melodramatic and frequently are artificially infused with explicit sentimentality. If Rachmaninoff had written short stories rather than piano concerti, this is how they would have looked. These stories lack the emotional and psychological subtlety of Chekhov and Turgenev, writers to whom Bunin is frequently compared. They are as socially reactionary as they are mushy: The story considered to be Bunin's masterpiece, "The Gentleman from San Francisco" is a patronizing fable about how the (particularly American) bourgeois habit of purchasing nobility is futile. It's like Citizen Kane with a nasty dose of anti-American bourgeoisie bashing. After all, Bunin believed that the nobility were the source of all good in Russia, and the American super-rich were nothing more than pretentious fools. Though the imagery can be lovely, you never get passed the idea that Bunin forced much of what he wrote for the good of the "people." He was an aristocratic artifact.

Beautiful, anti-American melodrama. That's what you get here.