Word: gogol
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Though matters racial preoccupy the diarist, Notebooks also displays Fugard in relaxed moods: exalting the clean wind and open sea, excitedly reading Camus, Gogol and works of Zen. But the real strength of his personal record is its collection of stories overheard, incidents chanced upon, sorrows glimpsed by accident-the random scraps out of which Fugard fashioned his plays. As he listens to a vagrant's life story, accompanies a friend to court, watches two blacks carrying a wooden box through the night, Fugard registers and captures the keening images that are the very stuff of vibrant theater...
Goldstein's A la Russe brings alive many of the mouth-watering meals of Russian literature, like the robust soups and breads of Gogol's Ukrainian tales. Borsch, the rich beet soup considered typically Russian, is actually native to the Ukraine, which boasts 100 varieties; included here are a Ukrainian and a Moscow version. The spicy food of Georgia is a prized addition to the blander Russian cuisine, notably tabaka (pressed and grilled chicken), as well as the more familiar shashlyk from the Caucasus. Among other dishes well known to the West, beef Stroganoff and Russian salad were...
Little can be gleaned about the author himself from the cryptic "biographical" information on the dustcover, which sounds much like the drunken fiction inside. But if his background is unclear, Erofeev's literary heritage is not: his prose is in the great Russian grotesque tradition, hearkening back to Gogol by way of such earlier Soviet satirists as Bulgakov, Zamyatin, and Zoshchenko. There are also traces of authors as diverse as the Symbolist Andrei Bely (in some of the bizarre urban imagery). Rabelais, and J.D. Salinger (whose Catcher in the Rye was widely circulated in the Soviet Union...
...attractive prospect, perhaps not even for the Russians. Should they arrive, book lovers among them might experience a sense of déjà vu. From Mexico to the islands of southern Chile and Argentina, there is a burst of literary energy reminiscent of the age of Gogol, Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. Great differences exist between the writers of 19th century Russia and 20th century Latin America, but so do profound similarities. Both groups have had to face provincialism, political suppression and foreign influences that threatened to drown out their native voices...
...FACT, Gogol's play is not so neatly consummated; the wedding at the end of The Marriage is director Scott Weiner's addition, borrowed from an earlier Gogol play, The Suitors. Gogol allowed Podkolyossin, still reluctant to marry, to escape out a window; Weiner has the wedding guests thwart his escape and drag him to the altar. The ending is more definite, and therefore more satisfying, particularly for the younger...