February 09, 2010

A "very bouncy" translation of The Little Golden Calf


The Louisville Courier-Journal has a nice feature this morning on Anne Fisher, the translator and driving force behind our new translation of The Little Golden Calf. It talks about how the book went in and out of favor with the Soviet regime, and how Anne was inspired to bring the work out in English because it had been so instrumental in forging her own understanding of all things Russian.

As an American undergraduate exchange student in Karelia, a province in northwestern Russia, Anne O. Fisher wanted to deepen her appreciation of her host country's culture. So her Russian classmates introduced her to a fictional confidence man, Ostap Bender, the hero of Ilya Ilf's and Evgeny Petrov's obscure satirical novels The Twelve Chairs and The Little Golden Calf "My friends told me, if you want to understand Russia, you have to read these books,â? said Fisher, who lives in Louisville and works as a Russian translator. She quickly became obsessed with the books and with Bender, a Huck Finn with a Slavic accent, a Marx Brother mugging among the Marxists. She went on to write her doctoral dissertation on Ilf and Petrov, then helped translate 2006's Ilf & Petrov's American Road Trip: the 1935 Travelogue of Two Soviet Writers, a Borat-like book about the satirists' journey across the United States.

There is also a bit that any translator can appreciate:

"I thought I knew these stories backwards and forwards, inside and out," Fisher said. "But as soon as I sat down and started translating, going over every word, I felt like I was enjoying them in a way I hadn't before, because I was fully understanding the extent of what makes them so funny and topical."

The Courier-Journal writer also spoke with Jeff Brooks about Anne's work:

"Bender's escapades in this novel amount to a tour of early Stalinist Russia on a full measure of laughing gas,â? said Jeffrey Brooks, professor of Russian history at the Johns Hopkins University and author of When Russia Learned to Read"Of course, Russia at that moment was violent and nasty. You would not know it from this novel, but then, humor requires some distance from some things," he added.

And it ends with a nice plug for the book:

Brooks calls Fisher's translation "very bouncy," giving it the advantage for being based on the most complete and least-censored original text available. Two comprehensive introductions and a full set of notes and appendices explaining the novel's colorful characters and frequent catchphrases offer English-speaking readers a detailed legend for the road map of Soviet culture provided by Ostap Bender's wild ride, keeping his irrepressible spirit alive.

Anne will be giving gave a reading of The Little Golden Calf at Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville, in case anyone reading this is in striking distance (Wed, Feb 10, 7 pm). [Here is a photo of her hard at work (thanks to Gabriela Nunez):]

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Some of our Books

Little Golden Calf
February 01, 2010

Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas
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The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.

 
Jews in Service to the Tsar
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The Latchkey Murders

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Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka
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Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.

Marooned in Moscow
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Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

A Taste of Russia
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A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.

Murder and the Muse
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Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.

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