... My holy of holies is
the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love and the most absolute freedom
imaginable -- freedom from violence and lies no matter what form they
take.
Dear Carolyn,
One could think that you watch Russian TV (Channel One)
that repeats today this very quote from Chekhov every two or three
hours.
Yes, Box II was a grandson of Chekhov's dachshounds
Quina and Brom (Speak, Memory, pp. 29-30). Chekhov mentions them in a
letter from Melikhovo to Suvorin.
Among the characters of Chekhov's
play Ivanov there are Count Shabelskiy and a certain Borkin.
Now, the name of one of the two blackguards who murdered V. D. Nabokov was
Shabelskiy-Bork. In Speak, Memory VN tells about the tragic death of
his father, as well as the story of his father's duel (that didn't take
place) with Suvorin fils. For more, see my article in Russian: "Pushkin,
Chekhov i Nabokov: Pocherk sud'by v zhizni russkikh pisateley" (http://topos.ru/articles/0911/03_02.shtml).
Chekhov plays an even more significant role in my 430-page-long article on
Ada as a charade-like novel.
As to Salinger, I haven't read his Catcher in the
Rye, but I admire his Nine Stories very much. Funny, I remember that my
childhood friend (or rather his parents) had only one book in his library. Its
title was Nad propast'yu vo lzhi ("Catcher in the Lie"). It was a
piece of Soviet propaganda (about zagnivayushchiy Zapad, the rotting
West).
Alexey