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Novelist Gary Shteyngart: "Nabokov for the style . . ."
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[EDNOTE. Sandy Klein forwards this link to an interview that appeared today in Forward with Gary Shteyngart, whose novel "Absurdistan" is forthcoming this May from Random House. -- SES]
Six Degrees of Treyf : An Interview With Gary Shteyngart
Forward Thu, 27 Apr 2006 8:10 AM PDT
INTERVIEW
By Mark Oppenheimer
April 28, 2006
Q: Who are your favorite writers?
A: Dead: Roth * oh, that was the biggest Freudian slip ever! But I just read the galleys for his next book. It's the most depressing thing I've ever read. But it's amazing.
Q: I feel he should break into Toni Morrison's house and steal her Nobel Prize.
A: It's totally unfair. I hope it will be remedied before he croaks.
Q: It won't.
A: Going back to the dead. Nabokov. Nabokov for the style, Roth for the Jewish family. Okay, again, back to the dead: The 19th-century Russians. I do think that was the golden period. It was immaculately written. It was the combination of part documentary and part journalistic. Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons"* it's like Tom Wolfe without the ridiculous pretensions.
Here's the link to the entire interview:
http://www.forward.com/articles/7699
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Six Degrees of Treyf : An Interview With Gary Shteyngart
Forward Thu, 27 Apr 2006 8:10 AM PDT
INTERVIEW
By Mark Oppenheimer
April 28, 2006
Q: Who are your favorite writers?
A: Dead: Roth * oh, that was the biggest Freudian slip ever! But I just read the galleys for his next book. It's the most depressing thing I've ever read. But it's amazing.
Q: I feel he should break into Toni Morrison's house and steal her Nobel Prize.
A: It's totally unfair. I hope it will be remedied before he croaks.
Q: It won't.
A: Going back to the dead. Nabokov. Nabokov for the style, Roth for the Jewish family. Okay, again, back to the dead: The 19th-century Russians. I do think that was the golden period. It was immaculately written. It was the combination of part documentary and part journalistic. Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons"* it's like Tom Wolfe without the ridiculous pretensions.
Here's the link to the entire interview:
http://www.forward.com/articles/7699
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm