Featuring seven short stories by Gogol, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Turgenov, as well as accompanying essays offering close line readings and discoveries made by Saunders and his students over the years, the book shows us how far the Russians went to master the short story form and invites us to interrogate what sells us on those stories. With A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, Saunders’ latest book, these university lessons are imparted upon readers across the country. The goal is to understand the short story itself, to learn how a good story works, and discover what you (as a writer) value in fiction. The course is intended not as a survey of the Russian short story, but rather a way to close-read these giants of literature in order to glean lessons of craft. George Saunders has been a professor for Syracuse’s MFA program since 1997, throughout which he’s taught a class on Russian short stories in translation. There’ve been plenty of books on craft published by acclaimed writers before A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, but none have been infused with such belief in the capacity of fiction to change its readers, such revelation of the tricks of the craft, or such empathy for future writers.
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