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A review by jasonfurman
The Golovlyov Family: Shchedrin by Shchedrin
4.0
The most bleak Russian novel I have read by a very long shot. Every character in the book dies, mostly by suicide and alcohol poisoning. In many cases these deaths are abetted or encouraged by the character's mother or father. Most of them come back to the Golovlyov estate to die, but one commits suicide by the side of the road while her sister watches and another die on the road to Siberia, where they have been de facto exiled by his father. Oh, and did I mention, all of them dislike each other, cheat each other, and are indifferent to each other's suffering. To say that betrayal runs in the family Golovlyov would be inaccurate -- the predicate of betrayal is trust.
It is also a very odd "novel." Each of the seven or so chapters features only two or three characters, not counting servants/serfs. At first you think that Anna Petrovna, the matriarch, is the main character. But then she's cheated out of the estate she cheated others out of by her son, Porphyry (also known as little Judas, bloodsucker and candid boy), and goes off to die. Then he becomes the main character for the rest of the book.
Porphyry is a very odd character. At times he seems like a hypocrite in the mold of Tartuffe, but he has none of his humor and he believes his own religious praddle, to the point where he can sincerely berate a servant he impregnated for her sin while forgetting entirely his part in it. (Oh, and if you're wondering, he sends the child off to an anonymous orphanage after he is born.) One of the more interesting discussions in the book is one where Saltykov-Shchedrin explains the differences between Porphyry and a miser/hypocrite in the tradition of Moliere.
I didn't particularly love reading this book. But after finishing it I read James Wood's excellent introduction which made me appreciate it much more -- and at least retrospectively glad I read it.
It is also a very odd "novel." Each of the seven or so chapters features only two or three characters, not counting servants/serfs. At first you think that Anna Petrovna, the matriarch, is the main character. But then she's cheated out of the estate she cheated others out of by her son, Porphyry (also known as little Judas, bloodsucker and candid boy), and goes off to die. Then he becomes the main character for the rest of the book.
Porphyry is a very odd character. At times he seems like a hypocrite in the mold of Tartuffe, but he has none of his humor and he believes his own religious praddle, to the point where he can sincerely berate a servant he impregnated for her sin while forgetting entirely his part in it. (Oh, and if you're wondering, he sends the child off to an anonymous orphanage after he is born.) One of the more interesting discussions in the book is one where Saltykov-Shchedrin explains the differences between Porphyry and a miser/hypocrite in the tradition of Moliere.
I didn't particularly love reading this book. But after finishing it I read James Wood's excellent introduction which made me appreciate it much more -- and at least retrospectively glad I read it.