FortochkaMoscow Monumental by Katherine ZubovichThroughout his regime, Stalin was obsessed with massive building projects which would act as a further strand of propaganda, offering a…May 9, 2021May 9, 2021
FortochkaThe Volga by Janet M. HartleyNotes I made as I read this excellent book — I’d imagine they are fairly pointless and boring to read!Feb 12, 2021Feb 12, 2021
FortochkaMalinovka Heights (or The Precipice) by Ivan Goncharov‘But life overtakes us all, and it will overtake you too! What will you do when it catches you unprepared?’Jan 25, 2021Jan 25, 2021
FortochkaNYRB’s Selected Stories of Nikolai LeskovJust some notes I made as I read this. Putting them here because I didn’t know what else to do with them.Jan 4, 2021Jan 4, 2021
FortochkaA Reader’s Companion to Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita by J.A.E. CurtisOn a visit to Moscow, I once stayed in an apartment which was directly opposite the one Bulgakov occupied when he first arrived in the…Jan 18, 2020Jan 18, 2020
FortochkaA History of Russian LiteratureThis is just a summary of notes I made while I read this whopper. Probably very dull to read and very little original thought — just…Jan 11, 2020Jan 11, 2020
FortochkaThe Anna Karenina Fix by Viv GroskopWhat would Nabokov have made of the Kardashians, if he were given the chance to meet them? What might Dostoevsky have thought about R…Oct 18, 2017Oct 18, 2017
FortochkaMadness Treads Lightly by Polina DashkovaThe Amazon Crossing imprint, on which this translation of a 1998 Russian crime novel is published, can seem a little mercenary. I’m not…Oct 6, 2017Oct 6, 2017
FortochkaRiot Days by Maria Alyokhina‘The first hunger strike is like love — very confusing. Later, you get used to it; but the first time there is only pain, leg cramps…Sep 23, 2017Sep 23, 2017
FortochkaRed Famine by Anne Applebaum‘As the human being died in them, the wild beast came to the surface. I saw one woman who’d been brought to the district center under…Sep 21, 2017Sep 21, 2017
