ROUSING ECHOES
FIENKA, by V. Krymov; Allen and Unwin, Price, 12/6. HE nostalgic writings of Russians-in-exile seem never to dry up. This is an echo of the 19th Century, a pastiche of the "genuine," classical, prerevolutionary Russian novel. Turgenev did not live in vain. Fienka is an excellent book, if one can overcome one’s uneasiness at its being published in 1949, The main characters. in the novel belong to the sect of the Old Believers whom the Tsars persecuted. In spite of having been an Old Believer and suffering the additional disadvantages of being a bastard and growing up barefoot, Fienka makes good, marries the wealthiest man in sight and, in the second share-out of husbands, a prince and high official, Nearly every one of the throng of well-drawn characters Krymov creates is a terrific "character," loaded with eccentricities. This fascinating attraction for extraordinary human detail gives the -book its quality. The attempt to suggest dialect by making some of the speeches, when translated into English, diverge from the ordinary rules of orthography or grammar is not entirely happy. Dialect can best be represented by sticking to a particular dialect, whether Cockney or lowland Scots, not by drawing on a number
of dialects at once,
David
Hall
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 557, 24 February 1950, Page 14
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207ROUSING ECHOES New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 557, 24 February 1950, Page 14
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