In the great Venn diagram of my life, the circles labeled “Broadway Musicals” and “Things I am Interested In” not only do not overlap but huddle as far away from each other as possible in their rectangular cage, like magnets with the same polarity.

Until now.

To show how out of it I am, I was unaware that the Broadway Musical based on this slice of <i>War and Peace</i> existed until I read the explanatory paragraph accompanying this selection on <a href= https://www.netgalley.com >NetGalley</a>, from which I snagged a free advance review copy.

Now I want to see it, but not enough to spend a king's ransom travelling to New York, rent a closet-sized hotel room for $400/night, and $137 for orchestra seats.

But definitely enough to read this book, which is advertised as being published in a nice pocket-sized format, suitable for carrying around in a pocket for those terrifying moments when you cannot access your electronic gadgets and are faced with the terror of being alone with your own dull thoughts for long tedious minutes.

OK, maybe YOUR thoughts are more interesting, but a few moments with this book are always an improvement for me.

Since everyone is surely worrying about this, rest assured that this excerpt features the translation that the cool kids are reading, that is, the one by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. This translation is relatively recent in vintage so still subject to intellectual property protection, meaning, the publishers had to pay for it. It probably would have been cheaper and easier to go with the familiar public-domain translation by Constance Garnett, so props to Vintage editors and publishers.

(Confession: I first read a lot of Russian literature in Garnett’s translations. They have a sentiment spot in my heart and seem to have stood up to the test of time as far as readability goes. But I understand Garnett's translations are simply inaccurate in places, so go with cool kids’ translation.)

Anyway, reading this excerpt, I found myself shaking my head and saying, yep, yep, I can see how this would make a great opera. If I understand correctly the reviews of the Broadway production, this “musical” is basically an opera -- there is one single line of spoken dialogue all evening. (Maybe actually calling it an opera would scare off some theater-goers.) It’s full of big operatic emotion and drama. If big drama and emotion are not your thing, this book is worth your time so you can smugly give an example about how your read a book against your natural preferences and enjoyed it.

Being a fat, ridiculous middle-aged man myself, my favorite character is of course Pierre, who manages to be both a fat ridiculous middle-aged man and the hero. I would like to end with a long quotation from him. It is <i>not</i> typical of the excerpt itself (except in the sense that the writing is splendid) but appeals to me in this particular moment in my life. <blockquote> Sometimes Pierre remembered stories he had heard about how soldiers at war, taking cover under enemy fire, when there is nothing to do, try to find some occupations for themselves so as to enable the danger more easily. And to Pierre all people seemed to be such soldiers, saving themselves from life: some with ambition, some with cards, some with drafting laws, some with women, some with playthings, some with horses, some with hunting, some with wine, some with affairs of state.</blockquote>

I don’t know who thought “we should make War and Peace into a musical!” But, they should have been stopped. While this book is written in traditional novel format, not libretto style, readers can still get a feel for the new musical that is for some reason very popular and nominated for Tony Awards. I hate the story so much. It’s indulgent, petty and cruel with completely unlikable characters. It’s not romantic and it’s not fun. If you are interested in checking out the music too, save yourself the trouble and skip it!

Hmm so this is very weird and very personal read for me…And when I say personal, I mean that my review is very subjective and deeply affected by me, me being bilingual, and my personal history with Leo Tolstoy.

So War & Peace and I go a long way back. I’ve tried to read the book twice before, but I never managed to finish it. Was it because I was too young? It sounds possible, but I read Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina when I was 13, maybe 14, and really enjoyed it, so that’s probably not the case. Was it the length of the book? Could be. I think, however, that my inability to finish it is mostly due to wrong timing and/or mood. I know for a fact that one day I will get back to it.

Well, now that that’s out of the way I feel like I need to explain where me being bilingual fits in. I speak – and read in – two languages, my native Greek, and English. When it comes to books, I really want to read them in the language they were originally written. Most of the time, it’s quite easy, since most of the books I reach for are written in English. Things get a bit tougher, however, when it comes to classic lit. Two of my favourite books of all time are Les Miserables and Crime and Punishment, written originally in French and Russian respectively. So, what do I do then? I go for the greek translation. Admittedly, the greek language is much richer than the english one, and I believe it captures the spirit of books that were not written in English in a better, more accurate way. Reading an excerpt from War and Peace in English may have been easier and quicker, but I felt like it took something a way from the story. That’s just me, though.

Overall, I did enjoy this relatively small sample of an otherwise enormous book, and I saw some of my suspicions and feelings proven (aka my mistrust and hatred for Anatole). It also put the entire book into a new perspective and I think that, were I to reach for it again, I would be able to better understand and appreciate it, because I got to familiarize myself with its characters a bit more.

PS. I hope the musical snatches all the Tonys, because it absolutely deserves it, it’s one of my favourite musicals of the year.



**An ARC was provided via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review**

If you have never read Tolstoy's masterpiece, War & Peace because its length daunted you, this short book which combines two incidents in the novel, along with some background, is a great introduction.

Pierre's part of the story has in it what I think is some of Tolstoy's best writing.

The translation is good and effective. It's an excellent introduction.

As someone who loves War & Peace, I'm not entirely sure why this excerpt was necessary. I know that it goes along with the current musical, but as an excerpt published on its own it seemed unncessary.