tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6413366501570639274.post1125740171953862729..comments2023-06-29T08:56:17.146-04:00Comments on The American Friend: Linda Danzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01235726521836889564noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6413366501570639274.post-73898602479924758402010-03-28T19:18:53.668-04:002010-03-28T19:18:53.668-04:00Once again this story easily transports me to a ti...Once again this story easily transports me to a time and place that I could never have been but always felt an emotional connection too. Indulge your inner "Harry Palmer" and you too will wish you were back in Russia during the 70's. You can practically smell the places described in this story. <br />I'm glad she made it back to Paris the second time .... but then again I would say that wouldn't I.paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10342186465972509981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6413366501570639274.post-58457922076781592832010-03-06T09:17:20.656-05:002010-03-06T09:17:20.656-05:00Thank you for your generous comments.
Though this...Thank you for your generous comments.<br /><br />Though this is a fictional story, I have often thought about my own trip to Moscow in'72 about that guard and that "upside down" Updike, which really happened. Perhaps it was because these people, in small positions of power, really were quite uneducated and in 72 would not have seen much, if any, English. The cyrillic language had nothing in it to compare. So as she took the book from the suitcase is how she read it. I think then I thought she was doing it on purpose as some kind of insult or intimidation. Despite Nixon's visit, Americans were not their visitors of choice :+) But as with so many who are forced into these militaristic/policing positions (the only real jobs at the time for those who spoke no other languages) she probably had no idea.<br /><br />I remember wanting to "kidnap" the young man who was the guide in Tretykov Gallery then. But imagine his surprise at our health care brouhaha now :+)<br /><br />It was my first experience of extremes of riches and poverty separated by "walls." <br /><br />I have just ordered "Cancer Ward" from the library to refresh my memory of that outstanding book. Still a library member and still a reader…Linda Danzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01235726521836889564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6413366501570639274.post-40699256861252208652010-03-06T08:11:00.063-05:002010-03-06T08:11:00.063-05:00From capturing the xenophobic tourists to arguing ...From capturing the xenophobic tourists to arguing under the Mona Lisa’s dispassionate look, to toasting cosmonauts - this tale hit the mark for me. <br /><br />I’ve oftened thought of what Russia was like during the endless cold war - <br />…cigarettes, cheap vinyl and fear. That’s just as reproductive of the atmosphere as I can conjure. The chilled marriage congealed it all for me.<br />( why Updike held upside down. I know some things are meant for impression - but I’d love to know what the guard was looking for. )<br /><br />Could Jacob’s paper be any more perfunctory to renda - to anything. Perfect.<br /><br />But even with all this, what speaks most to me as a reader is the moving back and forth in time through images - not too jolting, as can often be with writers - but gently and purposefully enough for the resonance. An example of this is the memory of reading alone in the pool area, told right in the middle of depicting Tolstoy’s house. <br /><br />From the moment they escape from the elevator I began to breath again, really. <br /><br />Bravo!Public Linguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08502943536443070769noreply@blogger.com