OK, the
Russian thing just keeps happening, meaning coincidences involving Russia. First, here are some lovely matryoshka, made of glass, by Masha Emmons. They were her senior art project, purchased for display at the Center for Liberal Arts at Illinois Wesleyan University, where one of her paintings will also hang in the Ames Library. (A bit of extra delight: Ames Library was a favorite reading spot for Chris Al-Aswad, who founded
Escape Into Life.) And wouldn't you know, our EIL reviewer, Scott Klavan, has just reviewed
Dr. Zhivago, the musical.
This caused me to remember that when I read the Boris Pasternak novel as a teen, I loved it. "What did you like best?" my parents asked me. "The poetry," I answered, surprising even myself. Surely I loved the love story and the battle of political philosophies. But I do remember when I turned to the back of the book and found all the poems there, I was struck by the magic of it; it made it all so real. As it was!
And we've had a weensy return to winter here, temps in the 30s. So it's definitely a Random Coinciday, as well as a Russian Hump of the Week!
Although I saw the movie of Dr. Zhivago when I was a kid, my first real reading of Pasternak was a short piece from an early poem, which Thomas Merton quoted in his book Disputed Questions.I have always loved it.
ReplyDeleteMy sister-called-life, like a tidal wave breaking Swamps the bright world in a wall of spring rain: But people with watch-chains grumble and frown With poisoned politeness, like snakes in the corn.
From My Sister, Life - Published 1917
By Boris Pasternak