Best Translation Into English 2010 AATSEEL Book Award
“Conveying cultural difference is always a challenge to the translator, but conveying the cultural difference peculiar to humor is a particularly daunting challenge. The rare translator who rises to the occasion deserves special recognition. Anne O. Fisher is just such a translator. She has not merely given us yet another Little Golden Calf in English (it is the third); she has given us one that will elicit the belly laughs Ilf and Petrov are famous for. She has also done so without sacrificing accuracy, thereby giving the lie to the bromide traduttore traditore, “the translator is a traitor.” This and the fact that Fisher wrote her dissertation on The Little Golden Calf and The Twelve Chairs vindicates the translators' new mantra: translation is interpretation. Part and parcel of the translation are the essential and unfailingly illuminating notes. Thanks to Anne Fisher, Ostap Bender never had it so good: she has given him a whole new audience.”
“The translation is fluent and accurate, and best of all (from my admittedly peculiar point of view) it's got all the apparatus you could want: over 300 endnotes explaining cultural references, an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, Fisher's own foreword, a bibliography, an appendix explaining characters’ names, and (mirabile dictu) a bilingual appendix of phrases from the novel that have become popular among Russians... if you want to understand the book in its full cultural and historical context, this is an ideal version.”
“[Of the two new translations of The Little Golden Calf], Fisher holds the decisive edge.... Fisher's demarcation of signs from the rest of the narrative is especially appealing.”
“The translator's exuberance for the novel is apparent... and the much heftier Russian Life edition of the novel brims with notes, appendices, forwards, and prefaces.”
“Bravo for Anne O. Fisher for her wonderful annotated translation of Ilf’s and Petrov’s hilarious road novel, The Little Golden Calf. Students will find the rascally hero to be the ideal tour guide for travels in Stalin’s Russia. As a fictional character Ostap Bender begs comparison with the greatest Russian literary rebels, as well as with the bandits of folklore, pop fiction, and legend. Russian Life Books has done a very nice job of producing the volume, which will prove enormously useful in classes in Russian History and Literature.”
“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.”
Listen to translator Anne O. Fisher's interview with Von Ketelsen of KWMT (Fort Dodge, IA) radio
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