A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

In the introductory chapter to this book, Saunders notes that these stories can be seen as a form of “resistance literature” (10). This is despite the fact that none of the stories is overtly about politics. Their resistance is instead oblique and quiet, and “comes from perhaps the most radical idea of all: that every human being is worthy of attention” (11).

Saunders observes that these writers were writing “in a repressive culture, under constant threat of censorship, in a time when a writer’s politics could lead to exile, imprisonment and execution” (10). While 19th century tsarist Russia may seem like a very different political climate than our own, there are repressive forces in our capitalist consumer culture as well. We are constantly distracted by technology and simplistic “information bursts” (12), and are vulnerable to the manipulative agendas of others. In such an environment, writing and reading amount to quiet acts of resistance.

The stories in this book are also political in their anti-dogmatism—their focus on complex realities and nuance. In the Chekhov story “Gooseberries,” for example, the character Ivan makes a passionate speech about the social irresponsibility of happiness. As Saunders notes, it is a stirring speech: “I’m moved and convinced anew by it every time […] I bet Chekhov believed it, too; the speech feels like it could have come right out of his journal” (413).