The Summer Guest (2016)
“Ana felt a surge of despair. Zinaida Mikhailovna in such a privileged position, and she agreed to keep the book all to herself, at his almost whimsical request?
Of course this was normal and natural in a friendship, to respect trust, to keep secrets. What was more puzzling to Ana was why Anton Pavlovich was so loath to let anything out into the world about the novel. He spoke quite openly about the story he was writing that summer (“A Boring Story”), or the play (The Wood Demon), but he seemed to want to hide everything about the novel.
Perhaps it was too personal or too challenging. Perhaps he was revealing things about himself—in an autobiographical way—that could be found nowhere else in his work, so until he was sure of the novel’s viability, he did not want to share it with anyone; or perhaps he was not always pleased with the book, so the less he said about it in general, the less explaining he would have to do if he abandoned the project altogether. Which, historically—until no...w—seemed to be what he had done.MoreLess
Of course this was normal and natural in a friendship, to respect trust, to keep secrets. What was more puzzling to Ana was why Anton Pavlovich was so loath to let anything out into the world about the novel. He spoke quite openly about the story he was writing that summer (“A Boring Story”), or the play (The Wood Demon), but he seemed to want to hide everything about the novel.
Perhaps it was too personal or too challenging. Perhaps he was revealing things about himself—in an autobiographical way—that could be found nowhere else in his work, so until he was sure of the novel’s viability, he did not want to share it with anyone; or perhaps he was not always pleased with the book, so the less he said about it in general, the less explaining he would have to do if he abandoned the project altogether. Which, historically—until no...w—seemed to be what he had done.MoreLess
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