Summer short story club
The writer is Anton Chekhov. The theme is: gardens.
Brian Bouldrey is taking us on a tour of Chekhov’s fictional gardens this summer.
You may remember Brian’s previous Chekhov club, in February of 2022, where we encountered the restaurant in a garden in “Lady with a Pet Dog,” as well as the garden’s insistent, transforming presence in “Gooseberries.”
You may also remember that, on the last day of that club, we all wished to just keep reading Chekhov together.
It’s finally happening.
Brian has chosen gardens as the organizing theme, so bonus points will be issued to anyone Zooming in from a garden.
This club will meet for one hour on Saturdays from 10 am to 11 am Pacific, June 10-July 15. If you miss meetings, no problem—they’re recorded and automatically sent out to everyone.
We will read these stories this summer:
“The Black Monk”
“The Man in a Case”
“Gusev”
“The Hunstman”
“Vanka”
“House with the Mezzanine”
We will use the Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (the same edition the February 2022 club used).
If you don’t have this collection already, buy it here and you’ll be giving a little extra support to FrizzLit.
Inside Jokes
Who can remember what they were? The inexplicable-to-outsiders running gags this time?
What were they besides, of course, our finest hour arguably, our Frankensteined phrase: “…There’s a tilapia… IN THE SAMOVAR!!!” — which went on to such spectacular renown that it became an apron illustrated by Kathryn Rathke!!!!
But... was there anything else? Evidently there was something going on with hats?
Was it just coincidence we were wearing fuzzy hats that day?
Comment if you recall.
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I don’t remember any particular inside jokes, but I do remember that Brian had these delightful (and totally optional) writing assignments each week. I don’t suppose he’s going to do that again?