a brilliant psychological study with early exploration
into layered narration and non-linear plot sequence.
The irony and humor are sublime. Truly a
literary landmark!

This book will soon be traveling as part of a 2-bookray
ring. Its traveling companion will be Ivan Turgenev's
Spring Torrents. One star indicates the book has been recieved. Two, that they have mailed the book to the next member.

The Participants in this ring are

1. Zarylia**
2. starfish103198**
3. Antof9**
4. themarina**
5. Brookler**
6. cmbohm**
7. urspider**
8. KF-in-Ga**
9. bookczuk (skip)
10.Shadie*
11.Metropolitan
12.ottoshumato
13.florafloraflora
14.billhookbabe
15.csvariation
16.jackiea
17.tqd

Formerly a ring, this is now a ray.
My buddy Tom gave me a lovely hard copy of
Hero with a forward by Nabokov for my b-day.
Anyhow, these two books will stay in Australia when the ray over.

Released on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 at Bookring in Bookring, A Bookring Controlled Releases.

forgot to note that this one was in the mail.
Mailed out last week.

Paynesville/MN/USA - Just received this a couple days ago with Spring Torrents and a cool postcard (thanks lucybrown! you have beautiful handwriting!). I'll be reading both of these just as soon as I finish The Canterbury Tales. Thanks for starting this ring lucybrown!

Paynesville/MN/USA - I found 'A Hero of Our Time' to be far more enjoyable than 'Spring Torrents'. Pechorin's character was fascinating and the use of different points of view was very effective in his characterization. In the end I was certain whether I despised him or understood him. I think a little bit of both. He really did not seem to have any emotion except for in fleeting moments that were rationalized soon after. Pechorin seems to be all detachment, cynicism, and logic with a hint (or maybe more) or narcissism. All together I thought it was a brilliant character study. Many thanks to lucybrown for sending this book my way. I'll get it in the mail to starfish103198 ASAP. Thanks again! :-D

Paynesville/MN/USA - Sent off to starfish103198 today. Enjoy!

Picked up at the post office today.

I don't really know what to make of this book. It contained the exciting elements of love, intrigue, and duels, but the 'hero' of the story is such a deplorable person. Despite this unlikable quality, I found it pretty easy to believe the character. In the forward or the preface it mentioned that many people find it hard to believe that one person could be so bad. I don't know, maybe I’m just a cynic.

I forgot to post this, I mailed the books yesterday.

WOO HOO! The Russians are visiting me! Thanks for setting up this ring, lucybrown -- these are those books that if not assigned in school, most people never read. And I don't want to be "most people"!

I have two ring books ahead of these (talk about convergence), but I'll start them as soon as possible.

Picture is the two books together on my desk :)

I'm having a hard time formulating my thoughts on this journal entry! First, I wish I had read this first, or perhaps not immediately after Spring Torrents, as I didn't like it nearly as much as Turgenev's book.

One thing that jumped out at me right away and then throughout the book was noticeable in its similarity to Spring Torrents, and I even remarked on it in my journal entry for that book: ". . .abandoned himself to those sensations of newly apprehended love which it is pointless to describe. He who has experienced them knows their languor and sweetness; there is no way of explaining them to one who has not." In this excerpt, I thought it such a beautiful, poetic (if you will, given the current book) way to basically say "I can't describe how new love feels to you if you haven't experienced it. I won't even attempt it!"

On the other hand, in this book when I noticed comments like that, they seemed almost like a cop-out. As if the author was really just too busy to be bothered to explain them to us. Perhaps if I hadn't noticed it 5 or so times, I wouldn't have felt that way. . . The only time I didn't find it annoying was this, for it was perfectly apt: "And then we had one of those conversations which make no sense on paper, which you can't repeat and can't even remember." A great description of what happens on those late-night talks when you're first starting to know one another.

I found the introduction by Paul Foote very interesting, and also helpful as a preface to the book. His ending was particularly entertaining. After describing Lermontov's life, how the book was accepted, his poetry, various literary devices, its effect on future Russian writing, etc., he ends with this: "Critis apart, A Hero of Our Time has been highly rated by generations of readers worldwide, who appreciate its qualities as a serious socio-historico-psychological novel -- and as a cracking good yarn."

As someone who always reads the Preface, I chuckled to read this part, "But the reader doesn't usually care in the least about a book's moral purpose or about journalists' attacks on it, so he doesn't bother to read the Preface."

I was very angry with Pechorin's response to Maxim Maximiych, after an absence of so long, and the callous manner in which he greeted him. Was it because memories of Maxim reminded him too much of memories of Bela? I don't think so. I think it is more symbolic of the shallow, uncaring type of person that Pechorin is. Maxim's final comment seems perfect (and applicable in life; not just to Pechorin): "As I've always said, no good ever comes of a man who forgets an old friend." This seems to be descriptive of Pechorin throughout the book -- he uses people for a time and at his whim. When he is done with them, he forgets about them. Perhaps the journal entry in Primcess Mary, describing his relationship with Werner is good in that he admits he's a lousy friend -- "We soon understood each other and became close acquaintances, for I'm incapable of friendship." -- but I found this part even more disturbing: "Of two friends one is always the slave of the other, though often neither will admit it. I can never be a slave, and to command in these circumstances is too exacting, for you have to pretend at the same time. Besides, I have money and servants enough." And there you have someone's sad commentary on friendship.

In Taman, I was very irritated when I read his prejudices against the blind. Also, the one-eyed, the deaf, the dumb, the legless, the armless. . . I just found this very small-minded, even given the time in which it was written. And was gratified when the blind boy could hear Yanko's oars 10 minutes before he could ;)

The odd dry humor was fun -- In Princess Mary, the entry for 13 May opens thusly: "This morning the doctor called. His name is Werner, though he's a Russian. There's nothing so odd about that -- I once knew a man called Ivanov who was a German." Maybe it's because I know a Swiss man named "Werner", I don't know, but this did make me chuckle.

Maybe the best adage to take away from this book is in The Fatalist, when discussing predestination, and Maxim's lack of forward thinking bothers the writer. I happened to like his response: "Bad luck on that poor chap, though. He should have known better than talk to drunks after dark." Wise counsel, always, to my mind :)

Lucybrown -- thanks again for sharing these books! I feel rich for all the books I'm stumbling on as a result of bookcrossers all over the world. I'm glad you were willing to temporarily give these 2 up for this ring :) There was a pretty hand-made bookmark in one of them that I'm leaving in for the next person to enjoy, and now I'm off to the post office to send these to themarina. Safe travels, books!

This came in the mail as part of a Russian Author's ring. I'm going to get started on this right away! Antof9 suggested I read this first and I think I will!

At the suggestion of Antof9 I read this before Spring Torrents.

The only "Russians" I've read were Nabokov and Tolstoy. Were it not for this ring, I would never have read these books.

I'm always a little nervous of reading "Literature", especially translated lit however, I was bery impressed with 'A Hero...'. The language was easy to follow which helped keep me interested in this great story. Not being familiar with Russian Literature, it surprised me that this was the first "novel" in Russian Lit and it really is a triumph. Though unlike the "modern" novel, this is more of a look at the individual but sharing stories of his life which reveal a little part of the protagonist.

I really enjoyed this book. Thanks for opportunity to read this! :)

I'm sending this off to the next member of the ring, Brookler!! :) I hope you enjoy them!

I just received this in the mail. Thanks so much for sharing it.

I admit to feeling slight apprehension about "Russian writers", but I did enjoy this book. I found the layers of storytelling a little confusing, the "story within a story within a story" -- sometimes I got so engrossed in the tale being told that I lost track of who it was being told to; at times I couldn't tell if the "I" of a sentence was Pechorin, or an aside by Maxim while telling about Pechorin, or the "I" of the story who was talking to Maxim!

All the major characters of this book are very believable. Though I found some of Pechorin's actions and justifications deplorable, I cannot say that I found him unlikeable. I think in fact he is a tragic figure, and for all the unhappiness he causes, I felt that he was himself most unhappy. I was also struck by how honest he is with himself, in contrast to how dishonest he is with those around him. As self-centered as he is, still he seems in many ways to dislike himself. In some ways, he reveals an element of human nature we all share to some degree (rarely to such extremes), though we prefer to deny it.

A very interesting book, without a linear plot, and with its separate parts having disparate writing modes. Thanks so much for sharing this with us!

The next person on the list asked me to wait on mailing this until after the holidays, which is why today is the day it finally got off. It's now, together with its Ring companion, on its way to Utah, USA. Enjoy!

Started this one and I'm already way into it! (Of course, I skipped the introduction and the chronology, so I'm really only a few pages in, but who's counting?) Thanks for the chance to read this one. I didn't want to read *too* much about the story, since that would take away from the suspense.

Made the mistake of tucking this in my nephew's diaper bag so I could read it while I was waiting at the doctor's office. Then he went home, and the book went with him! I have it back today, so I can get some more reading done. I'm having a hard time with it so far. I like the story, but it needs a little more concentration than I can usually give it. (Since I'm surrounded by demanding children!) But will start back today.

CMB

Well, I don't think the baby would have enjoyed this one, and I'm afraid I wasn't that crazy about it either. I did finish it, but it was rough going, because I just didn't care about any of the characters. They were well drawn and for the most part quite believable. But I found the lack of any moral character a little depressing. But thanks for the chance to read it. I haven't read many Russian authors before except Dostoevski and Solshenystyn (SP?) and I love them.

CMB

I plan to read this over the weekend, then send it to the next bookring participant.

Arrived today...

Edited to add a quotation (from page 25):

“I couldn’t help being struck by this capacity of Russians to adapt themselves to the ways of peoples they happen to live among. I don’t know if this is a praiseworthy quality or not, but it does show wonderful flexibility and that clear common sense that can forgive evil wherever it is seen to be inevitable or ineradicable.”

I read this first in the pair, and I enjoyed it.

In this book--as in Spring Torrents--I found myself feeling sorry for the protagonist. It's true he wasn't particularly likable, but he seems to have harmed himself as much as other people by cutting himself off from friends and lovers.

Bookczuk asked to be skipped for now on this bookring, so these books will be going out Monday to Shadie.

Im very sorry for the delay in journaling these. I have started this one and hope to have it finished soon, so I won't hold up the ring much longer!

I really enjoyed this book! I wonder how many of us have had a Pechorin in our lives. Some many times during this book, I thought to myself "I KNOW this man." Unscrupulous, uncaring, willing to hurt and destroy others out of boredom...how I wish the world could shrug its shoulders and dislodge all such people. The supreme selfishness without conscience is an astounding thing and, while it makes for a very good read, finding a real person like that is not in the least bit entertaining.

Starting the next book now!

This has just arrived. Thank you, everyone. This will be a nice segue to the biography of George Sand I just finished reading.

I was appalled to find this book and its sister volume Spring Torrents while unpacking the last of the books from my move. Somehow I had the idea I'd already moved these books along but clearly that's not the case. I'm reading this now and will follow it with Spring Torrents, then move them both along to whoever still wants to read it. So, so sorry.

I loved the shifting perspectives, which shed a lot of light on the personality of the bored, amoral thrillseeker, even as I agree with the preface that his ultimate motivations remain a mystery. 

This is going out soon to tqd in Australia. The other remaining readers have asked to be skipped or are no longer active on Bookcrossing. Thanks again, everyone, and sorry for the extraordinary delay. 

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Finally made it to the post office on a snowy day to mail this, and what a scene that was. Hope it arrives safely! Happy reading, tqd.

Well, these have *finally* turned up in Sydney! Not sure what route they took (nine months!) but this morning, there was a torn parcel in the mailbox, and these two books almost falling out! (I hope there was nothing else in the package.) Maybe they were temporarily borrowed by a literary postie. :)

Anyway, onto Mt TBR these go! I'd like to say I'd get to them quickly, but I don't think that's going to happen, given the size of Mt TBR...

I'm sorry, I've got to get books OUT of the house, and this one has been hanging out for too long! I'm taking it to BookDrinks tonight, I hope it finds a better reader than me.

Happy hunting/reading!