The translator Book

I really enjoyed this book. It focuses on the relationship between a dissident Russia poet who is a professor at a midwestern college and his student, a female undergrad who helps him translate his work from Russian to English one summer. It is also a study of the early 1960's in America. During the course of the novel the Cold War is on, America is getting involved covertly in Viet Nam, the Cuban Missile Crisis takes place, and JFK is assassinated. These events are an integral part of the story. The characters were never as alive for me as I would have liked, but I was blown away by the poems and the description of what translating them was like. Not only did English words have to be found for Russian ones, but rhythm and meter had to be maintained. More difficult yet to handle were Russian phrases that would trigger automatic cultural connections among Russian readers but which had no counterpart in English. If this was the work of an American novelist who was also a poet I would have been impressed. But John Crowley is know for his large body of fantasy writing. I am both mystified and bowled over by his choice of subject matter and the manner in which he carried it off. =