Ruth Anne Latta

Chevengur  reviewed by Ruth Latta   Ever since Elizabeth and Robert Chandler published their new translation of Chevengur last year, the 1927 novel by Russian writer, Andrey Platonov, has become popular. It was reviewed by Benjamin Kunkel in the New Yorker (March 11, 2024) and an internet search provides plentiful information about both author and book.  Andrey Platonov (1898-1951), a railway mechanic’s son, became an irrigation engineer, land reclamation specialist and developer of new hydraulic and steam turbines. (See Vladimir Sharov’s article on “Platonov’s People,” in the Chandler translation.) Some of Platonov’s writing was published in the Soviet Union during his lifetime, including several excerpts from Chevengur , but the Soviet literature authorities rejected the novel as a whole, which was not published until 1972, in France. An English translation was published in 1976, and finally, during the Gorbachev administration, the book was published in the Soviet Union in 19

  http://www.compulsivereader. com Volume 26, Issue 4, 1 April 2024 Click on the above for my review of "Tom Lake" in Compulsive Reader.

THIS VISIBLE WORM   My “William/Willie challenge”  Some years ago I watched the movie, “Dangerous Minds,” centring on a dedicated high school teacher played by Michelle Pfeiffer. She initiated a “Dylan/Dylan challenge for her students. They were to find poems/lyrics by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and the American singer/songwriter Bob Dylan which had the same theme.  It turned out that each poet had written a work urging a bold, confrontational attitude to death. Bob Dylan wrote:  “...I will not carry myself down to die./When I go to my grave, my head will be high.”  Dylan Thomas wrote, “Do not go gentle into that good night/Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”   The idea of finding a connection between two poets from different eras and intrigued me, so I invented a similar challenge for myself, the “William/Willie” challenge. “William” is the English poet William Blake (1757-1827), whose books, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience struck a chord with me. As a studen

 The online magazine, Compulsive Reader, has published my review of Tom Lake :   https://compulsivereader.com/ 2024/03/12/a-review-of-tom- lake-by-ann-patchett/  Ottawa's Indigo store at Pinecrest has copies of my novel, A Striking Woman , in stock.

  A DISEASE (dedicated to the memory of  Dr. Deborah Gorham) “ At the time, people kept telling me, ‘If you put your little boy in day care,  he’ll catch a disease! ’” said the guest speaker to the women at the community center. In an adjoining room, for the duration of the half-hour talk,  a sitter supervised their children at play. “ But he was fine, stayed healthy and learned social skills that have served him well.” I was newly married, new to the city where my husband worked. Listening, I harboured a germ of hope. to become like this historian  with the glossy dark hair, confident air, and passion for her work. I was stunned by the social expectations that marriage had brought down on me. Everyone but my husband wanted me to find a job,  buy a house with a backyard and have babies - A.S.A.P.!  STAT! Any other path was pathological. Were wedded bliss and a vocation incompatible? Were my dreams a disease? Forty years later, the historian spoke to my book club about her latest biogra

 Ed Broadbent’s Legacy to Us I met Ed Broadbent once,  in 2003, at an all-candidates’ debate in my Ottawa  community. At Jack Layton’s urging, he had come out of retirement to run in Ottawa Centre. His performance was outstanding. Afterwards, I and other audience members went up to the front to congratulate him. Another party’s candidate, who had a TV presence, was younger and perhaps better looking than Ed, assumed that I and the others were coming to greet him, and looked crestfallen on realizing we weren’t. Meanwhile Ed looked surprised and pleased to have so many fans come up to shake his hand. On January 28th, 2024, watching his state funeral, I was moved by the inspirational eulogies about his strivings to bring about a social democratic Canada, I was pleased to hear the co-authors of his recent memoir, Seeking Social Democracy, pay tribute to him.   “Broadbent wanted to write something concerned with political ideas in the broadest sense” wrote one of his co-authors, Luk