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6/1/1986 - Sonia by Nancy P. Condee

INSTITUTE OF CURRENTWORLD AFFAIRS PC os9ow June I hoped would newsletter number oscow diminishes objects carried multiply I realize In I would introduce relatively young writer whose short stories begun attention The translation I follow story brief comment writer In indeed newsletter I manage produce I would thank Institute support during years oscow mhanks peopIe written encouragement commens suggestions A person lived Only remains Sonia Remember Sonia dress looks Sonia sneeming sneezing Sonia And people those things emmirfe voice disembodied coming mouth telephone receiver Or suddenly there opens nowhere sunny briEht lively photograph Laughter around table hyacinths seems small glass tablecloth hyacinths their colored before there Anyone there But briEht shivers grows The backs people sitting tsble already transparent Their laughter disintegrates fades distance frightening speed Just cstch Sit before names order But futile snatch memories coarse earthly hands cheerful laughing figure turns around towards large coarsely painted falls sides On senseless forehead drippings fibre The little light glassy attached inside empty skull counterwe Wht witch And acted alive loved Nncy Condee Fellow Institute Current World Affairs Asslstn Professor Russian Wheaton College studying contemporary culture cultural politics Soviet Union NPC The laughing crowd flitted Having trampled rigid space twitters itself again inaccessible corner world eternally imperishable elegantly immortal Perhaps again inappropriate moment course without warning But since anyay chase after would trying catch butterflies waving shovel But would sting about Sonia One thing clear Sonia To about property being although there argue Invited first lunch distant thirties coated lowish starched table In front napkin rolled little house people The little bouillon cooled spoon table Sonia horselike features virtue English kings together froze Sonia added atronymic lessly Tell Sonia eatin I awaiting pepper would answer sternly moving upper passinE however became clear Sonio ireplaceable kitchen during holiday bustle excellent seamstress illing other people children outings their sleep everyone whole noisy bunch urgent merrymaking passing crystal Sonia foolishness other sprkling facets exquisite their unpredictability Like sensitive instrument Sonia would apprently itself thering cossetted yesterday Having stood about could never manage switch present If therefore funeral banquet Sonia would cheerfully shriek Bottoms because birthday parties clearly still alive memory At wedding other there wafted Sonia toasts yesterday funeral bread little shaped jelly candies I concert beautiful woman I wondering Sonia would panicking husband leaned across frozen At those oments Lev Adol fovich always joker would purse raise bushy eyebrows shake making light catch glasses Death lasts stupidity forever Knd confirmed words NP I Lev Adol fovich sister sharp woman snakelike elegance about herself awkward situation because dreamt punishing Gently course everyone laugh little asement ering corner Lev Ada thinking something witty Anyway Sonia sewed So Apal ingly friends appallingly Something striped things theft Just picture yourself tarpan other horse Lev Adol fovich observ under eormous henging blouse stuck stiff lapel shutters sleeves Sunken chest looked belonged snother pigeon shoes sides But chest clothing It clothing It could considered clothing those specifica tions particulrly think through Her brooch enamel She lapel jacket never parted Wen changed different dress always stuck Sonia cooked She turned maificent cakes And those entrails kidneys udder brains alwys So entrusted They tasted always basis jokes Lev Adol fovich would purse across table Sonechka udder absolutely astonished And would fully response would sweetly And I simply ecstssy sheep brains You brains Son would smile misunder standing And everyone would happy delight She loved children clear You could vodsk leave apartment children plsce while right Son return things excellent condition veryhing dusted children cheeked walks every museum where Sonia worked curator other museum ladies boring lives maids children naged attatched always disappointed passed along family But after egoist Sonia yourself She could eeded other people In short managed sensible rotetion system So Well about remem those detsils After fifty years almost nobody alive And really interesting genuinely substantive people there people behind concert recordings books monor What lives lived Each could soken about lessly That Lev Adol fovich essentially scoundrel brightest people sense You Ads Adol something close ninety yourself understand Then there incident Lenin blockade Something Sonia I recall Some glass letters other How Sonia In after tracks disappes forty Yes should about right fibre there siificnce knows parents child where lived friends before turned pepper sunny festive dining I should account however romantic lofty After enamel other people sentimental verses bursting inopportunely ugDer teeth children children traits picture romantic being Did happiness Oh Definitely That happiness Knd think Life tends jokes piness utterlydcompletely snake Ad Adol fovna youth interesting woman together entire bunch Ads Lev Valeria Serezha probably someone worked hilarious scheme since Ads Lev called adder little scheme worked perfectly The something F3 Kda lthough longer delightful figure swarthy blush cheeks first tennis first canoeing everyone listened It Ads uncomfortable adzirers whereas Sonia nobody scream admirers And Ads suggested think thing mysterious lovestruck someone madly various reasons unable person A marvelous A phamtom figure immediate dubbed iWolai burdened three children lodged correspondence apart A At point there resounded chorus protests Sonia finds around address But objection overruled inconseocential In first plaice Sonia whole point In second place ought conscience Yikoli family would Sonia really herself destroy He would spell plain simple Yikolai beloved unforgettable features forever imprinted themselves wounded heart Non write wounded literally think invalid never never fated together sense towards children forth feeling ikolai better feeling warms members How Adochka Quit iterruting fools iding luxuriant whatnot That letter He could concert admire8 delicate ofile point Valerian siply guffawing wanted start lofty correspondence He enormous difficulty finding address Implores photo graph So tryst after children wouldn their Ah sense But doesn corresponding All right paralyzed To waist IIence members Listen fooling around If necessary paralyze later Ada sDrinkled stationery cheap cologne 4otik pulled dried forget colored their childhood herbary stuck envelope Life The correspondence passsionte sides S0nia immedistely She couldn It becme necessary restrain ardor ikolai would write about letter month damper Sonia raging amour Tikolai outdid himself verse Va lerian sweat Some pearls God knows Tikolai compared Sonia liana gazelle He compared himself nightingale antelope furthermore simul taneously Ad wrote prose parts generally oversaw project reining adventurous friends would advise Valerian Write You antelope Sonia darling goddess I depths I without Yes height She quivered ikolain tenderness depths lonely ltuous She insisted preserving platonic purity their relations while hinting darkly ructive passions consummation which impossible because reason In evenings course ikoli supposed raise their appointed absolutely essential If participant epistolary novel happened moment nearby tried Sonia opening curtains furtively stealing glance starry heights hallway Sonia minute Sonia there something I about would revel anxiety cherished moment would while bbing about nothing missing Nikolai located environs Sirius other called anyway south direction Pulkovo Observatory Gradually enterprise began besides could bsolutely nothing languishing Sonia single secret She allow women become confidante general appearance nothing going really secretive turned whereas letters burned inextinguishable lofty emotio promised ikolai eternal fidelity communicated everything about herself detail dreamt little birdie somewhere twittered She trainloads dried flowers envelopes For kolai birthd adornment white enamel which unpinned ghastly jacket Sonia hewever It flew_ Tould baring boney horse teeth In could absolutely nothing Ada getting ready burdensome _ikolai receipt shuddered slightly murder better In letter accopauied vowed devote herself utterly ikolai after earth The entire conceivable harvest laughter lready reaped damnable hobblin chain throw Sonis without without beloved would simply inhuman So years Valeris Eo seems Serezha dropped participating various reasons while manfully oomily carried oistolary burden alone Each month machine hatefully turned those torrid postal kisses She herself already become little evening light seemed mirror would catch shadow moustache swarthy colored little And these women Leningrad spite other churned other lettews about someone exist began neither managed evacuate Ada trenches thinking about nsported during evacution kindergarten She She everything 9ossible boiled leather shoes drank bouillon wallpaper since contained after sm8ll amount nourishing paste December everything Ada brought first father Lev Adol fovich little common grave stoked little stove works Dickens fingers could wrote ikolai farewell letter Sonia She wrote hated everyone Sonia horse nothing existed either ikolai wanted living unlocked doors father enormous apartment burial could easily piled herself brother coats It unclear happened In first place nobody cared In second place Ada Adol fovna tslktive besides lready devoured everythi reading another difficult ability given everyone Va ectures esswork nothing It hardly likely Sonia received ikolsi deathbed epistle Letters through black December months arrive Let think raising blind hunger evening about ruins Rlkovo Observatory could sense magnetic beloved realized struck Say loving heart senses things It deceived And Sonia having essed ready reduce NPC ashes She tomato juice aside death moment through entire Leningrs apartment dying Tiko There enough juice Nikolai under mountain coats flaps around horrible parched cheeks clean shaven Sonia knees pressed puffy nails cried short juice little spoon threw books stove thanked happy bucket fetch water never again return The bombing heavy essentially everything about Sonia person lived Only Ada Adol fovna Sonia letters Adol fovna rolls bedroom dining turning wheels wheelchair hands Her wrinkled trembles slightly black dress covers lifeless heels A large cameo brooch pinned throat On someone killing someone shields spears fsllen graceful Le Letters letters Sonia letters I always ndson hisses glancing irritation Isn lunch mumbles Ad Adol fovna Whs large buffets heavy silver table service vases kinds supplies grosts mcaroni In other rooms glimpses buffets buffets wardrobes cupboards containing linens books kinds things theft Sonia letters decrepit packet wound round twine crackling dried flowers yellow transparent drsgonflywings Does recall And point after pestering trembling paralyzed woman enough difficult Most likely tossed kneeling swollen knees winter momentarily circle flame Perhaps letters shyly ctching first quickly blackened corners until finally wound column humming flames The letters would instant twisted fingers stiff So Only white I imagine pulled Doves catch after Tt olsta Leningrad She graduated Leningrad State University Department Classical Languages Litera began writing short stories Her first published apeared August issue Leningrad journal Avrora journal which Sonia appeared October Other short stories appeared journals Neva ktiab Ovy_i olstaia puppet entitled Step Across hreshold currently playing Moscow District Puppet Theatre A collection short stories conditionally entitled On Golden Porch heduled publication Gvardiia Publishing House As those field ssian literature will_ noticed Oolstai writes tradition ikolai Gogo The idiosyncra played narrator voice postrophes interptions digTes sions conversational mannerisms undoubtedly evident Gogol devices At times arrator ambivalence toward character simplest level example Ada Adol fovna interesting woman snake developed degree becomes distinct voices opposition another But chest clothing It clothing Other features clearly situate olstaia Gogol descendants enumeration lists tendency dehumanize people animate objects choice metaphor crystal Sonia foolishness portrayal physica psycholo gicslly grotesque female characters extensive stylistically colored 1snguage depiction conspicuous material consumption comic ortrayal romantic A contemporary influence olstaia narrative voice Nabokov riter whose works appesr Soviet Union whose mentionable Soviet literary criticism abokov works never theless generate interest T oscow llectual community other twentieth century ussian writer Tolstaia those authors learned write adopts ironic playful method storytelling sometimes apparently concerned withholding story And significance could relating straightforward fshion Elsewhere posed believe narrator memory fails remembers those details I recall Still elsewhere narrator appears simply formed about facts another favorite device Gogo It unclear haopened Above olstaia story general imbued atmosphere melancholy nostalgia ultimately remains greater artistic importsJce humorous counting practical Received Hanover