This is an amazing review of a very difficult novel, Harry. I read it first in college in a 20th century Russian literature class and then taught it two years ago in a class on irony and satire. The students were quite good and some of them reveled in it. I couldn't say the same of myself. I intuited the moral seriousness but could never really identify or articulate it.

I have found the novel nearly impenetrable. I don't have much sense of totalitarianism; I'm clearly not very sensitive to the sterility of modernity; I struggle with "the absurd"; and I wanted a clearer relationship between the three plots. All of which is to say that I wish I had had this essay in front of me when I was teaching The Master and Margarita a few years ago! It would have made me a better teacher, I assure you.

On another note: I've just begun Pablo d'Ors Biography of Silence.

Happy new year, my friend.