Happy Moscow

The book comprises a main story 'Happy Moscow' and related works - short stories, an essay, and a screenplay. Unexpectedly, the story I like most is "The Sparrow's Journey". I was contemplating skipping it since it is not the main story. Glad I read it. It is a simple story but it leaves a deep impression. An old lonely fiddler finds company in a sparrow which has been listening to his playing. One day, the sparrow was carried away to a faraway land by a hurricane. Since then, the sparrow had been trying to find a way home whereas the fiddler was left forlorn by the sparrow's absence. The sparrow did make its way home and by coincidence or design, the old man found the sparrow. The return journey had left the sparrow severely injured show more and it died not long after. The old fiddler was inconsolable. You wonder if it would be better if the sparrow had not returned? show less

The book Happy Moscow includes not just the title novella but also other works Platonov wrote in the mid-1930s: two short stories, an essay, and a screenplay. I previously read and admired Platonov's Soul and Other Stories and The Foundation Pit, considered his masterpiece, but found it very difficult to understand because of the almost random way the plot jumps around and because Platonov's writing is both allusive and symbolic. I had the same problems with these works, although the translators' notes were again extremely helpful.

The novella tells the story of an orphan who is named Moscow, a beautiful young woman who starts off her career as a parachutist, symbolic of the technological heights to which Soviet Russia hoped to soar. show more Later she works underground on the subway, again symbolic of technological accomplishments. At the same time, these activities and the activities of other characters, including a doctor who is hoping to find a way to essentially keep people from dying and an engineer who works to find a way to make perfect scales, are reflective of projects that were actually happening in Soviet Russia. From this bright start, looking towards the future, the characters' lives become increasingly restricted and sad, both with respect to love and with respect to profession. In the intervening chapters, Platonov portrays some of the realities of life in 1930s Moscow, including a large market in which new identities, as well as food and other goods, are for sale.

After reading the novella, I turned to the story "The Moscow Violin." Much to my surprise, large chunks of text from the novella were repeated in the story, or perhaps it was vice versa, as Platonov worked on both at the same time. I found the screenplay, "Father," perhaps the most interesting piece in the book. And, although the translator calls the essay, "On the First Socialist Tragedy," "one of the earliest and greatest of classic ecological texts, for me it was more of an essay about the conflict between the individual "soul" (which has a greater meaning to Platonov than our English word) and technological prowess.

One of the interesting things about Platonov, besides his language and style, is the way certain themes and images recur. As in both of the books I previously read, there is a strong thread of technology and engineering in this collection: how railroads work, electrical plants, underground systems, medical advances (or quackery), perfecting instruments. Platonov is fascinated by technological advances. There is also a strong thread of music, especially in these pieces the violin, which finds its way into almost all of them. And then there is love, and love triangles, and people puzzling over what love means. Other repeated images and themes include orphans, attempted and successful suicide, and sparrows. Finally, there is a character in the novella who tries to will his own death, much as characters longed for death in The Foundation Pit.

As must be clear, I really didn't know what to make of the pieces in this collection. I was eager to read them because of my admiration for Platonov's work, but for the most part I struggled to understand what Platonov was trying to say. Anyone interested in trying Platonov should not start with this collection! show less

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Wonderful book that gets under your skin, amazingly presented here by NYRB