To Distant Island - Softcover

McConkey, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0966491351 ISBN 13: 9780966491357

Publisher: Paul Dry Books, Inc, 2000

Synopsis

"One of our finest writers."--Annie Dillard

"What a pleasure, and how much there is to learn from this short book!" --Denise Levertov

"A deeply moving, exquisitely written book."--Washington Post Book World

"Exceptionally serene prose...leveled with sharp observation and subtle wit...neither history nor fiction, but rather a kind of reimagining of the past."--Michael Dirda, Smithsonian Magazine

"We have had many straight biographies of writers in recent years...that leave their subjects curiously diminished. Mr. McConkey's achievement...is to send the reader back to the Russian master with renewed wonder."--Harvey Shapiro, The New York Times

In 1890 Anton Chekhov--thirty years old and already a famous writer--left his home and family in Moscow to travel 6,500 miles across Russia, over frozen land and sea, by train, ferry, and troika, to visit the island of Sakhalin, a penal colony off the coast of Siberia.

What was Chekhov seeking by undertaking such a harrowing journey to that God-forsaken island? Ostensibly, he went in his role of physician, to observe the medical conditions and to collect statistical information (Indeed, Chekhov wrote that during his stay he filled out more than 10,000 census cards based on interviews with prisoners and exiles.) But his motivation, as James McConkey reflects, was more likely escape: escape from the sense of confinement that fame, fortune, and family had brought--a search, in other words, for freedom in a place where no one was free.

In To a Distant Island, McConkey recreates Chekhov's remarkable journey in all of its complexity, while interweaving a journey of his own. As McConkey guides us through the Russian wilderness and into the soul of this great writer, he uncovers the peculiar and hidden forces that shaped two lives.

"The genre in which McConkey does his best writing has no name. He invented it...What McConkey does is to create meaning out of ordinary life. He'll take a tiny incident...and by linking it through memory with a series of past events, he'll create what is not exactly a story but a pattern in time. By then the incident is no longer small; it has become the focus for a revelation...His books should be famous." --Noel Perrin, U.S.A. Today

James McConkey is the author of Crossroads, The Tree House Confessions, The Novels of E.M. Forster, and Court of Memory (a continuing biography that appeared serially in various magazines, primarily The New Yorker), and many other books. He is Goldwin Smith Professor of English Literature Emeritus at Cornell University.

Jay Parini is Axinn Professor of English at Middlebury College. He is the author of The Last Station: A Novel of Tolstoy's Last Year and Robert Frost: A Life and many other works of fiction, criticism, poetry, and biography.

About this title

Review:

Praise for James McConkey and "To a Distant Island"

"One of our finest writers."Annie Dillard

"What a pleasure, and how much there is to learn from this short book!"Denise Levertov

"A deeply moving, exquisitely written book.""Washington Post Book World"

"Exceptionally serene proseleveled with sharp observation and subtle witneither history nor fiction, but rather a kind of reimagining of the past."Michael Dirda, "Smithsonian Magazine"

"We have had many straight biographies of writers in recent yearsthat leave their subjects curiously diminished. Mr. McConkey's achievementis to send the reader back to the Russian master with renewed wonder."Harvey Shapiro, "The New York Times"

"The genre in which McConkey does his best writing has no name. He invented itWhat McConkey does is to create meaning out of ordinary life. He'll take a tiny incidentand by linking it through memory with a series of past events, he'll create what is not exactly a story but a pattern in time. By then the incident is no longer small; it has become the focus for a revelationHis books should be famous."Noel Perrin, "U.S.A. Today""

Praise for James McConkey and To a Distant Island

-One of our finest writers.---Annie Dillard

-What a pleasure, and how much there is to learn from this short book!---Denise Levertov

-A deeply moving, exquisitely written book.---Washington Post Book World

-Exceptionally serene prose...leveled with sharp observation and subtle wit...neither history nor fiction, but rather a kind of reimagining of the past.---Michael Dirda, Smithsonian Magazine

-We have had many straight biographies of writers in recent years...that leave their subjects curiously diminished. Mr. McConkey's achievement...is to send the reader back to the Russian master with renewed wonder.---Harvey Shapiro, The New York Times

-The genre in which McConkey does his best writing has no name. He invented it...What McConkey does is to create meaning out of ordinary life. He'll take a tiny incident...and by linking it through memory with a series of past events, he'll create what is not exactly a story but a pattern in time. By then the incident is no longer small; it has become the focus for a revelation...His books should be famous.---Noel Perrin, U.S.A. Today

Praise for James McConkey and To a Distant Island

"One of our finest writers."--Annie Dillard

"What a pleasure, and how much there is to learn from this short book!"--Denise Levertov

"A deeply moving, exquisitely written book."--Washington Post Book World

"Exceptionally serene prose...leveled with sharp observation and subtle wit...neither history nor fiction, but rather a kind of reimagining of the past."--Michael Dirda, Smithsonian Magazine

"We have had many straight biographies of writers in recent years...that leave their subjects curiously diminished. Mr. McConkey's achievement...is to send the reader back to the Russian master with renewed wonder."--Harvey Shapiro, The New York Times

"The genre in which McConkey does his best writing has no name. He invented it...What McConkey does is to create meaning out of ordinary life. He'll take a tiny incident...and by linking it through memory with a series of past events, he'll create what is not exactly a story but a pattern in time. By then the incident is no longer small; it has become the focus for a revelation...His books should be famous."--Noel Perrin, U.S.A. Today

Synopsis:

In 1890, Anton Chekhov, already a prominent Russian literary figure, travelled 6,500 miles to Sakhalin island, off the coast of Siberia. Willing visitors to this island were rare; rather, its inhabitants were people who had been sent there: prisoners and their families, guards, soldiers, and doctors. What was it that Chekhov sought on this terrible island? Almost a century later, James McConkey traveled to Italy and researched Chekhov's letters, memoirs, and an account of his journey to Sakhalin island. McConkey recreates that journey, weaving it with his own and telling two stories that reveal the peculiar and hidden forces that shape our lives.

About this edition

• Publisher: Paul Dry Books, Inc
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0966491351
• ISBN 13: 9780966491357
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 203