The Anna Karenina Fix is a lively, witty overview of the
Russian classics and sets out to show they are not deep, difficult and
intimidating but can be enjoyed by everyone. The 11 short chapters feature 10
of the great Russian authors, Turgenev, Pasternak, Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky
etc with her hero Tolstoy starting and finishing the book with chapters on Anna
Karenina and War & Peace.
The chapter titles give a flavour of Viv Groskop’s light-hearted style. Chapter four for example is titled:
“How to Survive Unrequited Love” – A
month in the Country by Ivan Turgenev – (Or: Don’t fall in love with your best
friend’s wife).
The introduction deals with the vexed issue of Russian
names, including the exasperating problem of diminutives. How do you keep up
when Alexandra is referred to as “Sasha”? Her own name Viv, became “Vivka”
(Little Viv) which was misheard by her Russian landlady as “Veepka” (Little
VIP) which in turn mutated to “Vipulenka” (Dearest Teeny, Tiny Little VIP).
The book is a vibrant mixture of humour, insight and anecdote,
with incidents from her own life in Russia thrown into the mix. It is a very enjoyable,
page-turning read and at the end of it you will have had the door flung open on
what for too many of us is the closed world of Russian literature. She makes
clear in her introduction that the book is not intended to be an academic
thesis, but instead:
“It's an exploration of the answers these writers found
to life's questions big and small and it's a love letter to some favourite
books which at one point helped me to find my identity and buoyed me up when I
lost it again.”
Until a few years ago One Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovitch was the only Russian novel I’d read – see chapter 8 in The Anna
Karenina Fix. Written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in 1962 the novel is set in a labour
camp in Stalin’s Russia. Despite the harrowing setting, the story is full of humanity
and wisdom, and is often included in lists of the world’s great novels. At just
209 pages it is an easy place to dip your toe in the water of the Russian classics.
Three things propelled me deeper: the first was a visit to
St Petersburg where my daughter, Anna was doing a prelim course in Russian
prior to studying for a year at the university in Novosibirsk, the capital of
Siberia – she always wanted to live where there was plenty of snow! Surrounded
by all things Russian made me want to get to know the country through its
literature. The second was our book group choice of First Love by Turgenev which was a short, easy read and prompted me go on to read his Fathers
and Sons. The third was the BBC adaption of War & Peace in January 2016. I’d
had a three-volume edition of the novel sitting on my shelves for years and knew
if I watched it on TV I’d probably never read it. So, I decided it was now or
never and finished it in 20 days. It was such a marvellous read that I went on
and read Anna Karenina too.
If you’ve been put off reading the Russians then Viv Groskop will hopefully inspire you to give them a go and if nothing else you will have read a very stimulating introduction to some great literature. As the Telegraph review states; “Explored with dancing wit,
affection and brilliance. Passionate, hilarious, joyful”.
