A "Choice Magazine" outstanding academic book. A century after his birth, Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) remains controversial, provocative, and "cool." Yet while he receives acclaim as a major American writer, few of his admirers in the West know the unique place he occupies in his native Russian tradition. In this captivating interpretation of Nabokov's career through the prism of his short fiction, Maxim D. Shrayer explores how Nabokov eclipsed the achievements of the great Russian masters of the short story, Anton Chekhov and Ivan Bunin, with whom he maintained a dialogic relationship even as he became - in exile from Russia and his native tradition - an American writer. A native of Moscow and naturalized U.S. citizen, Maxim D. Shrayer is the author of three collections of verse and of Russian Poet/Soviet Jew. He teaches literature at Boston College.
Maxim D. Shrayer (www.shrayer.com) was born in Moscow in 1967 and immigrated to the United States in 1987. He is professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College. Among Shrayer's books are the critical studies "The World of Nabokov's Stories" and "Russian Poet/Soviet Jew," the literary memoir "Waiting for America: A Story of Emigration," and collection of stories "Yom Kippur in Amsterdam." A bilingual author and translator, Shrayer won a 2007 National Jewish Book Award for his "Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature." He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters.
To view a short video about Maxim D. Shrayer's "Waiting for America," go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A26S5YdBEMc
To view a short video about Maxim D. Shrayer's "Yom Kippur in Masterdam," go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65V79GCssdc
To watch Maxim D. Shrayer's recent reading from and discussion of "Yom Kippur in Amsterdam," go to: http://frontrow.bc.edu/program/shrayer1/
