A crisp, conversational translation that makes Chekhov’s words sing.
An actor and director delivers a fresh translation of Chekhov’s classic play.
A comedy with its share of tragic elements, Chekhov’s famous drama has been a staple at theaters around the world for over a century. Here, debut translator Korenev presents a new version for English readers meant to capture the poetry and wit of the original. The play follows a group of artists (and would-be artists) and lovers (and would-be lovers) at a Russian country estate. The actress Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina is there with her lover, the famous writer Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin. Irina’s adult son, Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplev, is an aspiring playwright who stages an experimental (if poorly received) work for everyone’s enjoyment. The play stars local girl Nina Zarechnaya, who dreams of one day becoming a famous actress. Konstantin loves Nina; she is infatuated with Trigorin; and a number of other characters pine after one another in myriad combinations. Drama ensues, as it is wont to do. Before long, there are attempted suicides, contemplated duels, and the very strange gift of a dead seagull. Korenev, who was to play Trigorin in a Covid-19–delayed New York production that he was set to direct, translated the drama himself, in part as a way to get into the head of his writerly role. He succeeds in capturing Chekhov’s concise elegance in fresh, accessible English, as here where Trigorin offers Nina his famous musing on the dead seagull: “An idea for the plot of a short story: a young woman, like you, has lived by a lake since she was a child; loves the lake like a seagull, and is happy and free like the seagull. But by chance a man came along, saw her, and, because he had nothing to do, he destroyed her, like that seagull.” Readers will be struck by how contemporary the dialogue sounds, even given its remote setting. This clarity helps make Chekhov’s insight and humor shine all the brighter. Whether readers are familiar with the play or coming to it for the first time, Korenev’s clean and balanced rendering provides a wonderful experience. One hopes he is able to take it to the stage soon.
A crisp, conversational translation that makes Chekhov’s words sing.Pub Date: April 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-953608-00-0
Page Count: 158
Publisher: Anton Korenev Entertainment
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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