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Mikhail Shishkin. Calligraphy Lesson: The Collected Stories. Marian Schwartz, Leo Shtutin, Sylvia Maizell, & Mariya Bashkatova, trs. Dallas. Deep Vellum. 2015. isbn 9781941920039
Mikhail Shishkin is a major figure in contemporary Russian literature. Calligraphy Lesson presents eight heterogenous texts, not all stories, that superbly amplify our understanding of Shiskin's literary and linguistic preoccupations.
Shishkin has lived in Switzerland since 1995 and worked as an interpreter for the immigration service. "Nabokov's Inkblot," set in Switzerland, juxtaposes Shishkin's ironic portrayal of a "New Russian" with his veneration of his Russian literary heritage. The narrator is hired as an interpreter to show Kovalev and family around Switzerland. Their program includes a stay in the room Nabokov used at the Montreux-Palace, a room Kovalev rejects because it's too small....