The Translator (edição: 2003)

A beautiful book. Sad in many places, but neither pathetic or tragic. Eleagic, maybe? The protagonist suffers three or four great losses, but these loses aren't just some stuff that happens (pathetic), nor are they unavoidably impossible situations (tragic). Instead, these losses are transformed into something else. It's not sacrifice or redemption, where the losses serve some greater good or purpose: this, I think, would cheapen or demean them here. Instead, they are I don't know transformed maybe, into something beautiful. An elegy. An elegy to the death of poetry, that does not restore poetry to life, but transforms it, translates it, into another form of language: something certainly not the same, but for that no less beautiful.

BLABLABLA. These are just my thinking out loud first impressions. Not really a review of course. My recommendation: read it now, and then later, read it again. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. It focuses on the relationship between a dissident Russia poet who is a professor at a midwestern college and his student, a female undergrad who helps him translate his work from Russian to English one summer. It is also a study of the early 1960's in America. During the course of the novel the Cold War is on, America is getting involved covertly in Viet Nam, the Cuban Missile Crisis takes place, and JFK is assassinated. These events are an integral part of the story. The characters were never as alive for me as I would have liked, but I was blown away by the poems and the description of what translating them was like. Not only did English words have to be found for Russian ones, but rhythm and meter had to be maintained. More difficult yet to handle were Russian phrases that would trigger automatic cultural connections among Russian readers but which had no counterpart in English. If this was the work of an American novelist who was also a poet I would have been impressed. But John Crowley is know for his large body of fantasy writing. I am both mystified and bowled over by his choice of subject matter and the manner in which he carried it off. = ( )

John Crowley is a great writer. I love the way he uses language. I enjoyed reading the words of this book, the way he strung sentences together, and it was a quick read. Which was for the best, because, frankly, it was kinda boring. So, I liked it, but it's not one I'd be really quick to pass along. ( )

What amounts to a minor work from Crowley (though to be fair, a 'minor' work from him is still pretty amazing). Much quieter and a little less ambition than Little, Big or the Aegypt novels, though with many of the same preoccupations - an unknowing individual caught up in the winds of history. The poetry is wonderful, and the writing is pristine and complex. ( )

I'm not quite sure what I thought of this book. As always, Crowley's writing is beautiful in its simplicity, and he has an amazing way of expressing complex emotions in deceptively simple terms. I guess my problem with the book is that it all took place from Kit's point of view, and it was hard to see why Falin felt the way he did about her.

It's also hard for me to say what this book was about. Obviously I can tell you what the story is about, but I had a little trouble seeing why the Cuba Missile Crisis had such an important role in the story. It is hard to connect the personal and the political plots.

I suspect I read it too quickly because Crowley's writing is so enjoyable, and I probably need to spend some more time with some of the pivotal passages and think about them more clearly.