{"id":26678,"date":"2012-02-10T13:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T18:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=26678"},"modified":"2012-02-11T17:55:49","modified_gmt":"2012-02-11T22:55:49","slug":"banal-sentimentality-time-for-tolstoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/10\/banal-sentimentality-time-for-tolstoy\/","title":{"rendered":"Banal Sentimentality; Tackling Tolstoy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hi, <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m planning a trip to Southeast Asia later in the year, and I\u2019m looking for fiction set in the countries I\u2019ll be visiting. For the most part I’ve managed to find books that fit the bill<\/em>\u2014Graham Greene\u2019s <\/em>The Quiet American<\/a> for Vietnam, Andr<\/em>\u00e9<\/em> Malraux\u2019s <\/em>The Way of Kings<\/a> for Cambodia, and Christopher Kremmer<\/em>\u2019<\/em>s <\/em>Bamboo Palace<\/a> for Laos. But I’m really stuck on Thailand. There<\/em>\u2019<\/em>s <\/em>The Beach<\/a> by Alex Garland, which I<\/em>\u2019<\/em>ve read and wasn<\/em>\u2019<\/em>t a huge fan of. Aside from that all I can seem to find are some fairly nasty-looking crime novels. I\u2019d prefer something slightly more on the literary side of things if possible, whether fiction or nonfiction. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks (and kap koon kah).<\/em><\/p>\n

John Burdett\u2019s not your speed, eh? In that case, I recommend Mischa Berlinski\u2019s Fieldwork<\/a><\/em>. Set in Chiang Mae and in the jungles of northern Thailand, it tells the story of an anthropologist and a family of American missionaries battling over the hearts and minds of an animist village. No less an authority than Stephen King raved about it in Entertainment Weekly<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

This is a great story. It has an exotic locale, mystery, and a narrative voice full of humor and sadness. Reading Fieldwork<\/em> is like discovering an unpublished Robertson Davies novel; as with Davies, you can\u2019t stop reading until midnight (good), and you don\u2019t hate yourself in the morning (better).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

King didn\u2019t like the title (\u201cBerlinski tells us the editor hung that says-nothing title on the book. The guy should have stuck to editing\u201d). As the editor in question, I may be biased\u2014but I promise it\u2019s the book you want.<\/p>\n

Bon voyage!<\/p>\n

Dear Lorin,<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps you can assist me with a delicate matter. Having lately fallen in love, I find I have been inspired to address to my particular Phoebus Apollo a string of flamboyant sonnets, which, although they genuinely come from the heart, are, I suspect, really terrible. True, they scan quite well and, of course rhyme, but in their slightly banal sentimentality they make John Betjeman seem highbrow. So, mindful of the possibility that such a dubious body of work might someday come to light, is it better, do you think, to run the risk of being labeled as an awful poetaster who\u2019s heart is in the right place, or disconcerting Phoebus Apollo by engaging in ruthless self-censorship?<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Daphne<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Daphne,<\/p>\n

Why not take a page (a very famous page) from Sir Philip Sidney?<\/p>\n

\n

Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show
That she (dear She) might take some pleasure of my pain:
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain;
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe,
Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain:
Oft turning others\u2019 leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sun-burn\u2019d brain.
But words came halting forth, wanting Invention\u2019s stay,
Invention, Nature\u2019s child, fled step-dame Study\u2019s blows,
And others\u2019 feet still seem\u2019d but strangers in my way.
Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite\u2014
\u201cFool,\u201d said my Muse to me, \u201clook in thy heart and write.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As Sidney writes, a love sonnet needn\u2019t be good\u2014just induce a modicum of pity. Your limitations can only be a strength. <\/p>\n

The time has come for me to read Tolstoy, but his classics, <\/em>War and Peace<\/a> and <\/em>Anna Karenina<\/a>, intimidate the hell out of me. I know he penned short stories, essays, and plays, and perhaps these are a good place for me to start. Can you recommend any of his shorter works? Or should I just tackle his epic novels (the rewards of which I know would be great)?<\/em><\/p>\n

Not long ago our Southern editor recommended Tolstoy\u2019s late great novella Hadji Murad<\/a><\/em>. It is a terrific book. So are The Kreutzer Sonata<\/a><\/em> and The Death of Ivan Illych<\/a><\/em>. If Tolstoy had never written a long novel, they would still be read as classics\u2014two of the toughest books around on the subjects of jealousy and dying. That said, do yourself a favor, and dive into Anna Karenina<\/em>. Thanks partly to the new translation<\/a> by Pevear and Volokhonsky, it has enjoyed something of a vogue in recent novels: the main characters in Jonathan Franzen\u2019s Freedom<\/em><\/a> and in Ben Lerner\u2019s Leaving the Atocha Station<\/em><\/a> grapple with its greatness. You should, too. It is the novel people talk about when they talk about the Novel. As for War and Peace<\/em>, well, a person feels funny even recommending it. It is so original a piece of historical fiction, so deeply postmodern, so much fun to read, that you almost never see anyone try to rip it off. It will change your head.<\/p>\n

Have a question for the editors of <\/em>The Paris Review? E-mail<\/a> us.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi, I\u2019m planning a trip to Southeast Asia later in the year, and I\u2019m looking for fiction set in the countries I\u2019ll be visiting. For the most part I’ve managed to find books that fit the bill\u2014Graham Greene\u2019s The Quiet American for Vietnam, Andr\u00e9 Malraux\u2019s The Way of Kings for Cambodia, and Christopher Kremmer\u2019s Bamboo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[4639,6290,4860,4861,6294,6291,6295,962,6289,4110,6292,6297,6296,6293,4473],"class_list":["post-26678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-the-paris-review","tag-anna-karenina","tag-fieldwork","tag-hadji-murat","tag-leo-tolstoy","tag-love-poems","tag-mischa-berlinski","tag-sir-philip-sidney","tag-sonnets","tag-southeast-asia","tag-stephen-king","tag-thailand","tag-the-death-of-ivan-illych","tag-the-kreutzer-sonata","tag-travel-reading","tag-war-and-peace"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBanal Sentimentality; Tackling Tolstoy by Lorin Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"February 10, 2012 \u2013 Hi, I\u2019m planning a trip to Southeast Asia later in the year, and I\u2019m looking for fiction set in the countries I\u2019ll be visiting. 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