This book is totally relevant, you guys. I mean, I just went home to visit my parents, and then I went with my friend to visit his parents, and it was pretty much exactly the same as it is in this book! Except that we did not dissect frogs when we needed a break; we just read books. But the not-getting-along-perfectly-ness of grown children and parents has always been and will always be a thing.
After Bazarov declares his love to Odintsova and angrily kisses her, she runs to the other side of the room, and the magic of the boys' time at the Odintsova* estate is ruined, and they go visit Bazarov's parents. His father is a bon vivant doctor and his mother is a sweet sweet mother who loves her little boy to pieces. There's a great passage listing all her superstitions (she won't eat watermelon; it reminds her of John the Baptist's head) and habits. It ends with, "Such women are rare nowadays. God knows whether we should be glad of it or not!" Arkady thinks Bazarov parents are really charming, but soon Bazarov has had enough and they go back to Arkady's house again, where Bazarov spends lots of time with the servant girl Fenichka and Arkady gives his father advice about his disarrayed estate, "not in the hope that it would be taken, but to show his sympathy."
*can you tell I really like her name? Her character in general I really like. She's described as discontent. Nothing satisfies her. She's not happy, and yet she's somehow content. Turgenev basically says that her life at home is so organized and so established in a routine that she never can get bored or be discontent. And she lounges in her clean sheets, a good enviable activity. I'm not sure what it means to be so orderly that you can't be bored, but I'd like to experience it maybe once.
13 January 2012
5
Books I met: fathers & sons & me
This book is totally relevant, you guys. I mean, I just went home to visit my parents, and then I went with my friend to visit his parents, ...
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