Gary's Friend Comments

The "Anna Karenina" to read is NOT the Tom Stoppard movie screenplay, and NOT most of the translations out there, BUT the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Unlike the movie, which lacks the heart, lungs, and soul of Russia, the Leo Tolstoy novel is something you can see, smell, hear, touch, and taste. It's as long as Russia is wide, and just as magical once you get out of the constraints of all the indoor life and get into the countryside - they hunt mushrooms in Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina," not something you would ever guess from any of the movie versions!