The Mother

This reads like a cross between Dr Zhivago and the last part of The Jungle. It’s packed full of characters who, in true Russian fashion, each have seven names they use interchangeably, and it makes Germinal look tame in its socialist evangelism. Definitely a book of its time.

And for that, it’s important. Gorky wrote it while out of Russia licking the collective wounds of the proletariat incurred during the failed 1905 first revolution attempt. Had the subsequent replay in 1917 not gone the way of the people, the novel would probably have been laughed into obscurity, much as the last part of the aforementioned Jungle.

But 1917 did happen and the socialist dream became a reality nightmare. It wasn’t just a problem for generations of show more Russians, Gorky himself found what he’d been working hard to transmit in his writing didn’t quite translate to the Soviet. Falling out with Lenin and then Stalin wasn’t conducive to a life of ease. By dying under house arrest in the mid 30s, he saved Stalin the almost inevitable job of killing him off.

The book follows the eponymous mother as she metaphorically moves from illiteracy and subjugation to her past and class to the socialistically enlightened distributor of literature. The catalyst for this is the increasing zeal of her son for the cause leading to his eventual imprisonment. The novel ends, as befits a hagiography, quite predictably.

It drags a bit with the first half spent almost entirely in the mother and son’s small dwelling. That Gorky wrote plays is belied by the fact that for the longest part, this reads like a one act, one set play where every minor character takes turns coming in and going out the hovel’s only door.

But just when tedium has made you think you might not bother continuing, there’s a kerfuffle and various people get into hot water with the authorities. The pace picks up a little, but it’s not a page-turner by any means.

Read it for what it is: an appetiser for a Revolution that caused more misery than the likes of Gorky could have envisaged despite the good intentions of those, like him, who wanted to emancipate his people from suffering.

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Ne sarebbe venuto fuori un ottimo cartone Disney old style.
La Passione rivoluzionaria.
La Mitezza.
L'Amore materno.
Tutti con gli occhioni di Bambi.
[Per dire che è tutto talmente ingenuo e puro da sembrare posticcio, quasi - ma non in modo sgradevole. Leggermente inattuale in quest'epoca di disillusioni]

I quite like the book, because of the way in which he writes about the events of the small town, and how The Mother gets drawn into the revolution, and spreading pamphlets on the truth, as they call it.

While some may cavil at the fact that it is unlikely that a mother would follow in her son's footsteps in this manner, what is really interesting is how he detailed the manner in which she was drawn. She got drawn in because of her son, and without really knowing what she was being drawn into. This is true of most revolutionaries. They are drawn in, and never really understand the real issues.

The growth of the mother as a person is subtly captured.

The storyline did get a bit confusing at times, but I suppose that it does also reflect show more the confusion of the events of that time. show less

Jah, teie silmad ei peta teid. Ma lugesin tõepoolest esimest korda elus Gorki "Ema". Üllatuslikult hea raamat. Ausalt. Kummaline, kuidas mingid asjad tulevad õigel ajal su juurde.
Selle raamatu sai mu ema oma pinginaabrilt kingituseks siis, kui ta oli sama vana kui mu laps praegu. Veider oli kujutleda oma patsiga ema haigutades otsimas raamatust tsitaate kirjandi jaoks, mille teemaks võis allakriipsutatud katkendite järgi olla näiteks "Ema kujunemine sotsialistliku revolutsiooni taustal" vms.
Mulle kangesti meeldis ja mõjus ka originaalsena, et tegevus oli kujutatud just ema vaatenurgast. Taaskord minu jaoks aktuaalne teema. Kuidas meie üleolek laste suhtes muutub vähehaaval hämmeldusest austuseks. Kui normaalsed inimesed oleme show more me neist kasvatanud ja kuigi me alati ei mõista, miks nad elavad just nii nagu nad elavad, siis hea on näha neid õnnelike ja edukatena.

Loe edasi
http://indigoaalane.blogspot.com/2010/01/mgorki-ema.html show less

This has the distinction of being the only major Russian literary work written in the USA, being written when the author was in exile there in 1906. It is a tale of the purity of the revolutionary soul opposed to the infinitely corrupt and historically wrong soul of the capitalist oppressor. As such, it is populated by characters who are really ciphers who don't come across as real, living, breathing people, except (up to a point) the eponymous mother. The benefit of the hindsight of the Soviet experience also sharply reduces the impact of this novel. That said, it flows mostly very smoothly and is a easy read for a Russian novel.

A wonderful story. sort of a Russian Grapes of Wrath, except it portrays people a little bit higher than laborers, a little bit higher than people who work in the soil. These people can read and write. They distribute pamphlets. They read books and they teach others.
The Mother in the novel is a loving, old Russian mother who you cheer for when she begins to understand the fire that burns within her children, and how uniting this fire brings about a flame large enough to burn hypocrisy.
“If I get presented with a bit of happiness I won’t refuse it, but I’ll not go begging for it.”
“Yes, a little happiness doesn’t harm anyone,” said Nikolai softly. “But no one is satisfied with a little, and when there’s a lot it show more becomes cheap.” show less

Read in Slovene under the title of Mati.

A world literature classic, Gorki's Mother tells of the struggle of the working class against the cruel oppression of the capitalist oligarchy which keeps the workers in a near-slavery state to grow rich on their backs. A central figure is the uneducated, unenlightened mother of one working-class activist who is slowly realizing what the fight is about, thereby highlighting the problems the intellectuals had with explaining the cause to those most oppressed and least educated.