Books: “The Possessed” by Elif Batuman

I had asked for some science-fiction selections in my book order to change things up a bit. In the pile was “Dune,” a series I had meant to reread, but decided against it; from the look of the spine, it would require commitment. There was Ursula le Guin’s “The Dispossessed,” which has been on my list for some time now. Then I saw “The Possessed,” in the mix. I found the two conflicting titles to be wildly hilarious, and too good of a coincidence to pass up. And so, not knowing what it was about, I had asked for both books to be delivered.

It turns out, “The Possessed” is not a science fiction novel, at all. It is a story about books, Russian books to be specific and their larger-than-life authors. Batuman writes of her funny encounters while studying Russian literature as a student in this light-hearted yet serious memoir; a Nabakov updated! And while her research topics are absurdly academic, Batman counters its heaviness with the comedies of life that surround her at the time of reading, highlighting her view that literature can indeed be born from literature.

I loved reading about the Uzbek language, its loose metaphors and far-fetched morals from folklore; the language is “long and difficult to fathom”, forcing readers to make huge jumps to surmise conclusions. Yet there are 100 words to describe the different ways of crying. How quaint!

“There are certain books that one remembers together with the material circumstances of reading: how long it took, the time of year, the color of the cover. Often, it’s the material circumstances themselves that make you remember a book that way – but sometimes it’s the other way around.”

“While it’s true that, as Tolstoy observed, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, and everyone on planet Earth, vale of tears that it is, is certainly entitled to the specificity of his or her suffering, one nonetheless likes to think that literature has the power to render comprehensible different kinds of unhappiness. If it can’t do that, what’s it good for?”

“When we find the suitcase, we will send it to you. In the meantime, are you familiar with our Russian phrase ‘resignation of the soul?’”