Ah, it's been years since I've read any Chekhov, and I'm left with vague impressions of appreciation and love. I have read Saunders' A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, in which he teaches the reader to appreciate Chekhov more recently, and it was as if I was discussing Chekhov with someone who understood.
Your interleaving of the reflections with the personal cancer story is lovely. And, you're a generous person to enjoy a character's epiphanies as much as your own ;-)
Thank you. I'm glad our story turned out better than Chekhov's. As for epiphanies, the nice thing about those of fictional characters is that I don't have to work for them.
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnnogowski/p/on-saunders-kindness-and-swimming?r=7pf7u&utm_medium=ios
Nice story about Saunders. I'm in the middle of A Swim in the Pond in the Rain right now, and it is one of the best, most helpful books about reading and writing that I've come across. Your story about teaching Huckleberry Finn made me think of this article in the Atlantic about teaching Gatsby to a struggling class: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/03/great-gatsby-book-fitzgerald-race-interpretation/672778/
Thank you. Some journeys are better than others. We got very lucky.
That Saunders book looks really interesting, so I've snagged a copy. Thanks for pointing it out.
Ah, it's been years since I've read any Chekhov, and I'm left with vague impressions of appreciation and love. I have read Saunders' A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, in which he teaches the reader to appreciate Chekhov more recently, and it was as if I was discussing Chekhov with someone who understood.
I'm glad that the cancer journey has ended.
I am halfway through A Swim, and it is fantastic. Thank you.
Your interleaving of the reflections with the personal cancer story is lovely. And, you're a generous person to enjoy a character's epiphanies as much as your own ;-)
Thank you. I'm glad our story turned out better than Chekhov's. As for epiphanies, the nice thing about those of fictional characters is that I don't have to work for them.