The Review of Contemporary Fiction

The Town of N by Leonid Dobychin
Amy Havel

Leonid Dobychin. The Town of N. Trans. Richard C. Borden with Natalia Belova. Intro. by Richard Borden. Northwestern Univ. Press, 1998. Paper: $14.95.

The story behind the publication of The Town of N is almost as interesting as the novel itself. Dobychin published the book, his only novel, in 1935, then disappeared after the public denial of his work. He was found two months later, dead of an apparent suicide. How the book was published at all, during Stalin’s rule, is a mystery; immediately following publication, Soviet critics attacked the book for its “formalist” style and thematic criticism of the regime. Although contemporaries such as Tynyanov and Kaverin proclaimed Dobychin an eminent author of their time, his work was nowhere to be found until this book was republished in the late 1980s, as a result of Gorbachev’s glasnost.
Dobychin uses a traditional Russian device of a child narrator; however, his nameless boy does not exist in that “ideal state” of childhood. He is not living in innocence but depending on, simply, distorted information. Over a span of ten years, the boy’s primary modes of learning—adults and books—are proven faulty because of his misinterpretation. His ears and eyes deceive him: he misunderstands pretty much everything the adults say and do, only to repeat their sayings and explanations inappropriately. Literature, too, offers little true insight. Among the books he misreads is Dead Souls; thus the “N” in the title is a place the boy dreams about, a place he imagines he will go to and be welcomed. This mistake that the narrator makes in comparing his town with Gogol’s fictive “N” (a full century later) truly points out that nothing has changed with Marxist “progress.” And although nothing has changed, nothing is seen clearly either. The boy’s realization of this occurs in the last chapter, when he (not) coincidentally peers through another’s glasses and understands that he has been mis-seeing things all along: his books, his relationships, his understanding of the world.
The young narrator has a habit of repeating exact words that adults tell him, but uses quotation marks to set them apart. Therefore, his choice of language can be confusing at times and partially indiscernable. Borden, in his introduction, clarifies that Dobychin’s original text included this punctuation, alluding to children’s tendency to mark adult words that way. However, this conceit causes some distraction because the narrator’s own understanding seems inconsistent.
While knowing Gogol’s work (or Sologub’s, which is referred to several times) is not necessary to enjoy The Town of N, readers may miss the full effect without that background. Dobychin’s book surely offers an intriguing view into a short window of time right before fifty years of heavy censorship. Unfortunately, readers may have to wait to read more Dobychin: his short stories are still only available in Russian. [Amy Havel]


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The Review of Contemporary Fiction The Town of N by Leonid Dobychin Amy Havel Leonid Dobychin. The Town of N. Trans. Richard C. Borden with Natalia Belova. Intro. by Richard Borden. Northwestern Univ. Press, 1998. Paper: $14.95. The story behind the publication of The Town of N is almost as interesting as the novel itself. Dobychin published the book, his only novel, in 1935, then disappeared after the public denial of his work. He was found two months later, dead of an apparent suicide. How the book was published at all, during Stalin’s rule, is a mystery; immediately following publication, Soviet critics attacked the book for its “formalist” style and thematic criticism of the regime. Although contemporaries such as Tynyanov and Kaverin proclaimed Dobychin an eminent author of their time, his work was nowhere to be found until this book was republished in the late 1980s, as a result of Gorbachev’s glasnost. Dobychin uses a traditional Russian device of a child narrator; however, his nameless boy does not exist in that “ideal state” of childhood. He is not living in innocence but depending on, simply, distorted information. Over a span of ten years, the boy’s primary modes of learning—adults and books—are proven faulty because of his misinterpretation. His ears and eyes deceive him: he misunderstands pretty much everything the adults say and do, only to repeat their sayings and explanations inappropriately. Literature, too, offers little true insight. Among the books he misreads is Dead Souls; thus the “N” in the title is a place the boy dreams about, a place he imagines he will go to and be welcomed. This mistake that the narrator makes in comparing his town with Gogol’s fictive “N” (a full century later) truly points out that nothing has changed with Marxist “progress.” And although nothing has changed, nothing is seen clearly either. The boy’s realization of this occurs in the last chapter, when he (not) coincidentally peers through another’s glasses and understands that he has been mis-seeing things all along: his books, his relationships, his understanding of the world. The young narrator has a habit of repeating exact words that adults tell him, but uses quotation marks to set them apart. Therefore, his choice of language can be confusing at times and partially indiscernable. Borden, in his introduction, clarifies that Dobychin’s original text included this punctuation, alluding to children’s tendency to mark adult words that way. However, this conceit causes some distraction because the narrator’s own understanding seems inconsistent. While knowing Gogol’s work (or Sologub’s, which is referred to several times) is not necessary to enjoy The Town of N, readers may miss the full effect without that background. Dobychin’s book surely offers an intriguing view into a short window of time right before fifty years of heavy censorship. Unfortunately, readers may have to wait to read more Dobychin: his short stories are still only available in Russian. [Amy Havel]

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