Nikolai Gogol: Diary of a Madman and Other Stories - Translated by Ronald Wilks
Russian literature awes me in its description and the way words fall in a line, mostly like how I think in Tamil and not how I am taught to write in English. Ever since I read Jhumpa Lahiri’s Namesake, I’ve thought of reading Gogol. The final push was when I requested Tolstoy’s Kingdom of God is Within You (The book that gave Mahatma thoughts on realizing non-violence in addition to Bhagavad Gita) and PPLS has ordered it just for me:) AND I am 154th in line for The Last Lecture, REALLY!!!!
The story is about a government document copier, Akaky Akakievich. All that he ever cared about was his job, not what his co-workers thought of him, social life, or family. Then one day, he is in need of an overcoat. After months of planning and budgeting, he gets a new one and the whole world notices him. As he begins to enjoy the coat, he encounters thieves who take it away. His attempts to find it are a waste in his corrupted country. One official yells at him cruel enough to make Akaky sick and die.
But, he comes as a ghost and teaches a lesson to the citizens of St. Petersburg.
Gogol’s words are ordered very logically in place, if you can understand what I mean. The words are just how a non-native English speaker thinks. I enjoyed the wordiness, description of places, people, emotions brought out in this short story. I lived in various characters myslf. St.Petersburg, now Leningrad, was brought alive in Gogol’s creation and reminded of many cities I have been in. Government’s inefficiency and corruption portrayed in 1842 is still true in most places of the world, discouraging as it is.
Somehow, we all can see ourselves in tiny bits in the various characters in this shortstory.
Somehow, every city is partially described in this too, and so are all emotions.
Dostoyevsky was right in saying We have all come from under THE OVERCOAT.
