Book set in Tsaghkadzor, Armenia. Reread on 2020/07: https://www.instagram.com/p/CC84adyAEvI/
Reviewed on 2019/08: https://www.instagram.com/p/B0yKVD3gNUy/
#vasilygrossmanrealized something very important at the end of his life: human beings adapt very easily to life under #censorship and #apathy . Any other state or any efforts to make them think otherwise are futile and vowed to failure one way or another. #anarmeniansketchbook is his attempt to put into words how aware he was of our contradictions and how powerless he was against it. It’s also the only antidote he found to humanity’s shortcomings: a#translation and a villa by the lake. That’s the thing here. This is both a pessimist and a hopeful text: can’t stop hoping for the best while knowing quite well that the best is never going to arrive… Is this also a #travelogue ? A goodbye-cruel-world note? A middle finger to all his #sovietcensors? Maybe all of the above. Who knows and who cares? This book is succinct, deep and debonair in less than a hundred pages. As I’ve said a million times before, a book doesn’t need hundreds of pages to convey a compelling and sophisticated story… Grossman knew and didn’t know that. That’s why he spent whole two months in #armenia editing and polishing a translation in a language he didn’t speak at all. #highlyrecommended #simplythebest#nyrb #armenian #lakesevan #yerevan#censorship #banned #Tsaghkadzor#Ծաղկաձոր #Երևան #Սևանալիճ#Гроссман
hebdo_readings 