"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Sheer genius! This man, in one sentence, the very FIRST sentence, sums up all of marital living! And it is ever so true! In the words of George C. Scott channeling Patton,..."Tolstoy, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD, I read your book!"
Well, at least I've begun it, but honestly after a first line like that, summing up all of humanity and the fragility of marriage and family and human connections, anything after that is just the cherry on top of the sundae!
It has begun....
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
It All Began w/Shaun Cassidy and a Play
The first time I ever heard of Anna Karenina I was 15 years old. I was still in love with Shaun Cassidy and he was going to be starring in a play on PBS's "American Playhouse" series. The play was "Breakfast with Les and Bess" written by Lee Kalcheim and it starred Cloris Leachman and Dick Van Dyke as a couple who lived in 1960s New York City with their two children and had a job as a pair of radio talk show hosts. There were a few other actors playing the daughter, the son-in-law, narrator, etc, but I was in it for Shaun Cassidy. Back then we didn't have a VCR so I stayed up and watched it with a tape player recorder the sound for later playback of dreamy Shaun Cassidy's voice and the play itself.
I thought the play was okay, oh back then I thought it was great because Shaun Cassidy was in it, but honestly it was an okay play. Somewhere along the way Dick Van Dyke's character mentions a book...a long book..that he's always meant to read from cover to cover, but always gets distracted and never finishes it. At the end of the play he pulls the book down and decides that for the last days that their radio show is on the air, he is going to read this book to the listening audience...the book was "Anna Karenina".
It stuck with me and I always wondered about that book. One day I chanced upon it in a little independent book store while on vacation up at Lake Okoboji in Iowa and I decided to buy it, this beautiful looking book, this big book, by this man I knew from being an English Literature major was one of the finest writers of the world, Leo Tolstoy. I bought that book, I bought it SEVERAL years ago, and ever since then I have been trying to read it, just like Dick Van Dyke's character, Les, in "Breakfast with Les and Bess". I pick it up, I start it, I get distracted, I put it down, weeks go by, months go by, I notice it again and pick it back up, but always feel like I need to start back at the beginning there are so many characters to remember, it's such a dense read. Every summer for the last few years, I pull it out again and say "This is the summer I'm going to read AND FINISH 'Anna Karenina'" and it starts with good intentions, but I never finish it.
Well, this year I vow will be the year that I shall read every bittersweet word of Anna's ill-fated love for Vronsky. This is the year I shall finish and so to encourage myself to read and analyze and fall into the spell of love, I am starting this blog to give encouragement to my reading, to urge me on to continue reading and write down my thoughts about Vronsky's lover-Anna Karenina.
Yes, this is the year I plan to start and finish and revel in the beauty that is "Anna Karenina".
Won't you join me...
I thought the play was okay, oh back then I thought it was great because Shaun Cassidy was in it, but honestly it was an okay play. Somewhere along the way Dick Van Dyke's character mentions a book...a long book..that he's always meant to read from cover to cover, but always gets distracted and never finishes it. At the end of the play he pulls the book down and decides that for the last days that their radio show is on the air, he is going to read this book to the listening audience...the book was "Anna Karenina".
It stuck with me and I always wondered about that book. One day I chanced upon it in a little independent book store while on vacation up at Lake Okoboji in Iowa and I decided to buy it, this beautiful looking book, this big book, by this man I knew from being an English Literature major was one of the finest writers of the world, Leo Tolstoy. I bought that book, I bought it SEVERAL years ago, and ever since then I have been trying to read it, just like Dick Van Dyke's character, Les, in "Breakfast with Les and Bess". I pick it up, I start it, I get distracted, I put it down, weeks go by, months go by, I notice it again and pick it back up, but always feel like I need to start back at the beginning there are so many characters to remember, it's such a dense read. Every summer for the last few years, I pull it out again and say "This is the summer I'm going to read AND FINISH 'Anna Karenina'" and it starts with good intentions, but I never finish it.
Well, this year I vow will be the year that I shall read every bittersweet word of Anna's ill-fated love for Vronsky. This is the year I shall finish and so to encourage myself to read and analyze and fall into the spell of love, I am starting this blog to give encouragement to my reading, to urge me on to continue reading and write down my thoughts about Vronsky's lover-Anna Karenina.
Yes, this is the year I plan to start and finish and revel in the beauty that is "Anna Karenina".
Won't you join me...
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