A Class (in book form) Exploring the Works and Techniques of Great Russian Writers

 A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders

A Swim in the Pond in the Rain book cover

I love George Saunders, and this was one of my picks for my reading group. The subject was to pick books about books, and I thought this was a good way to finally get around to reading this book. Although it probably helps to be more familiar with the works he analyzes, he also provides these stories in the text, so we can read along as he shares the process of deconstructing and analyzing these texts from different stylistic methods just like he would in his writing seminars. This was my favorite part of this book, being able to be like a participant in one of his classes. I loved that Saunders shared his methods and activities for analyzing these stories, while also encouraging his students to think about and consider adapting or adopting some of these methods for plot, character development, and themes in their writing. As someone who is not completely familiar with 19^th century Russian literature, I found the topic to be a little intimidating, but I think that Saunders provides enough background to fill in any gaps, and makes some of the cultural and class distinctions relevant to modern day readers. Although it probably took the longest, I appreciated the first method where we worked through short sections with Saunders as he analyzed the text of the story; this kept the details fresh and allowed me to better understand the craft. However, I can also appreciate how reading  the story first and then going back to analyze the details might also work. In any case, I think this is a great book for literature lovers as well as teachers, since it provides insights into writing as well as how to help students understand literature and potentially think about their own creative writing by applying the methods and strategies used by these Russian masters. It’s also just great to read along with the class to help examine elements of the stories that one might not encounter on an initial read.