Catherine Brown
Dressing Gown Nation?
Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin and Other Geniuses of the Golden Age
By Sara Wheeler
Jonathan Cape 304pp £20
The ‘stars’ of this book’s title are Russia’s golden-age writers. The ‘mud’ is Russian life, from the 19th century to the present. The implication is that most Russians live in the latter but have the option of reaching for the former. Over the course of several years, Sara Wheeler (sometime explorer of Greece, Chile and the North and South Poles) has relied on writers ranging from Pushkin to Chekhov as geographical and spiritual guides to their homeland. She has explored their houses, the places where they fought their duels, their graves and their relevance today.
For the reader, a great deal of trouble is thereby saved. There is negligible tourist infrastructure across most of Russia’s vast expanse. Wheeler puts in the hours on trains, on obtaining permissions to visit restricted regions and on home-stay sofas so that we don’t have to. She digests
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm