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msgtdameron's review
4.0
Published in 1880 "The Golovlyov Family is a mirror to the current GOP here in the U.S.. The two main family members, mother Petrovna and youngest son Iudushka, are self centered and ice cold to all. Petronva spends her time collecting property and wealth for the sole purpose of collecting property and wealth. She gives her children a bare minimum to live and when she falls on hard times is left at Iuduska's board. A place that he grants her only with great reluctance. She dies alone emotionally although Iudshka is physically with her. He is more concerned with inventorying her goods and getting what is his.
Iuduska spends his time mouthing prayers to the icons, paying for requiem masses, holding court on Holly Days and dreaming about collecting more money and property. He does this originally by trickery of the peasants and then bringing them to court. To the point where no one locally ever visits. Afraid they will get caught in one of his schemes and have to pay him, some form of damages. AS time goes by and he ages he stops actually collecting property and money and starts to dream about collecting property and money. He continues to mindlessly recite prayers to the icons and holding service in his dinning room but, all his prayers are empty mouthing of words. He continually berates his children, telling them that they come and ask for bread but he will only give them stones. He won't part with one ruble to help his family. He dreams ridiculous dreams: "How much will I make if all the district cows but mine die?" and them calculating the profit. How much can I make if " I give the peasants permission to cut my timber. But I give it to them in secret and then bring the magistrate in and have him arrest the peasants for illegally cutting my timber. I then have them fined one ruble for the logs but they bring the logs to me so I won't have to pay for the cutting of wood." Schemes like this drive him mad. Not the mad of Raskonlikof but the plain old mad of a man who has no life because he has no friends or family to look after him. The mad of a man who has cut off all contact with those he see's a les than him. The mad of the lonely. Iudushka dies in a March snow storm on the side of the road on his way to his mothers grave to ask forgiveness for being such a miser and skin flint.
Compare his actions to the GOP. Cut health care, poison the water and air, harass all who don't look like us, WASP Men. This last list includes women, Hispanics, blacks, children, Muslims. All while spending several hours in church blindly reciting prayers and hymns with out practicing any of the precepts of the faith. One can only hope that the GOP leadership will die politically and leave us with a new master.
Historically Golovlyov was written just after the serfs were emancipated and Russia was in the midst of huge social and political upheaval. An upheaval that the Tsars so badly mismanaged that they ended up with a civil war. A civil war that was totally avoidable if Sloypins reforms had been put in place. I don't see any Sloypins in the Republican party. The upheaval is here folks one can either continue with reforming the system and including ALL or one will get swept aside in the cyclone of history. Other wise the GOP will die like Iudushka.
Iuduska spends his time mouthing prayers to the icons, paying for requiem masses, holding court on Holly Days and dreaming about collecting more money and property. He does this originally by trickery of the peasants and then bringing them to court. To the point where no one locally ever visits. Afraid they will get caught in one of his schemes and have to pay him, some form of damages. AS time goes by and he ages he stops actually collecting property and money and starts to dream about collecting property and money. He continues to mindlessly recite prayers to the icons and holding service in his dinning room but, all his prayers are empty mouthing of words. He continually berates his children, telling them that they come and ask for bread but he will only give them stones. He won't part with one ruble to help his family. He dreams ridiculous dreams: "How much will I make if all the district cows but mine die?" and them calculating the profit. How much can I make if " I give the peasants permission to cut my timber. But I give it to them in secret and then bring the magistrate in and have him arrest the peasants for illegally cutting my timber. I then have them fined one ruble for the logs but they bring the logs to me so I won't have to pay for the cutting of wood." Schemes like this drive him mad. Not the mad of Raskonlikof but the plain old mad of a man who has no life because he has no friends or family to look after him. The mad of a man who has cut off all contact with those he see's a les than him. The mad of the lonely. Iudushka dies in a March snow storm on the side of the road on his way to his mothers grave to ask forgiveness for being such a miser and skin flint.
Compare his actions to the GOP. Cut health care, poison the water and air, harass all who don't look like us, WASP Men. This last list includes women, Hispanics, blacks, children, Muslims. All while spending several hours in church blindly reciting prayers and hymns with out practicing any of the precepts of the faith. One can only hope that the GOP leadership will die politically and leave us with a new master.
Historically Golovlyov was written just after the serfs were emancipated and Russia was in the midst of huge social and political upheaval. An upheaval that the Tsars so badly mismanaged that they ended up with a civil war. A civil war that was totally avoidable if Sloypins reforms had been put in place. I don't see any Sloypins in the Republican party. The upheaval is here folks one can either continue with reforming the system and including ALL or one will get swept aside in the cyclone of history. Other wise the GOP will die like Iudushka.
abookishtype's review
2.0
At the end of Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin’s biting satire, The Golovlyov Family, the narrator meditates on the random fates of families. Some reverse their declines and rebuild the family fortunes. Others are at the top of fortune’s wheel before precipitously falling to the bottom within generations. Personality has much to do with the rise and fall of fortunes, but there is also an element of luck. At the beginning of The Golovlyov Family, published as a serial between 1875 and 1876 but set some years before serfdom was abolished in 1861, the eponymous family controls a growing estate in the Russian country side. By the end, three generations are ruined and the estate passes to another branch of the family...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
vetathebooksurfer's review against another edition
4.0
Reminds me of Oblomov, actually. Enjoyed this very much
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