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Speaking of Russian masters, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have produced a series of new translations of Tolsoy's great contemporary, Fyodor Dostoevsky. Their latest is The Adolescent (Everyman), the only one of Dostoevsky's novels I hadn't read previously. You may have seen it in translation as A Raw Youth; it came between two great books, The Possessed (or The Demons) and The Brothers Karamazov. When I was younger, I devoured his books; now it is harder for me to read him even as I revere him. This is a twisty, talky book, with stories-within-the-story; despite struggling at times, I am glad to have read it at last.

Another recovery from the 19th century is The Wrong Side of Paris (Modern Library), the last volume in Honore de Balzac's extraordinarily ambitious unfinished series of novels, The Human Comedy. This again was a book new to me (the translator, Jordan Stump, notes that it has appeared previously in English under various titles). The story concerns a mysterious group called the Order of the Brotherhood of Consolation. … It's a short novel, fast-moving, best read in one all-night sitting (fueled, of course, by several cups of French Roast).

If you're looking for something astringent—having heard too many muzak Christmas carols, perhaps—try The Ghost Stories of Muriel Spark (New Directions). I wonder if Spark's ghost stories are so convincing in part because she takes the supernatural for granted. Earlier this year, New Directions reissued Robinson, Spark's second novel and one of her best (which is saying a great deal), first published in 1958. The point of reference is Robinson Crusoe.

Finally, from Vintage—bless them!—several more Philip K. Dick reissues have emerged this year. The two most recent—The Cosmic Puppets and Deus Irae, the latter written with Roger Zelazny—are not books to give anyone you hope to convert to PKD, but completists will not complain. There's time to zip through these as a warmup for the latest movie adaptation, Paycheck, scheduled to open on Christmas Day the last I heard.

Next week: more good reading, and some Picture Books.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Also posted today: Is "Sensual Orthodoxy" a Contradiction in Terms?

Books & Culture Corner appears every Monday. Earlier editions of Books & Culture Corner and Book of the Week include:

Urban Eden | In City: Urbanism and Its End, a new history of New Haven, Connecticut, the city (in its late 19th-century form) is an ambiguous heaven-and the suburbs that relentlessly followed are hell. Which leaves us where, exactly? (Dec. 01, 2003)

Cool Drink of Water | A poet's voice in the evangelical wilderness.

Faith, Hope, and Charity in North Carolina | New novels by Michael Morris—whose first novel, A Place Called Wiregrass, was a word-of-mouth hit— and Jan Karon, who continues her beloved Mitford saga. (Nov. 17, 2003)

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December (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47