The Little Golden Calf
BEST TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH, 2010 AATSEEL BOOK AWARD"Conveying cultural difference is always a challenge to the translator, but conveying the cultural difference peculiar to humor is a particularly daunting challenge. The rare translator who rises to the occasion deserves special recognition. Anne O. Fisher is just such a translator. She has not merely given us yet anotherLittle Golden Calfin English (it is the third); she has given us one that will elicit the belly laughs Ilf and Petrov are famous for. She has also done so without sacrificing accuracy, thereby giving the lie to the bromidetraduttore traditore, "the translator is a traitor." This and the fact that Fisher wrote her dissertation onThe Little Golden CalfandThe Twelve Chairsvindicates the translators' new mantra: translation is interpretation. Part and parcel of the translation are the essential and unfailingly illuminating notes. Thanks to Anne Fisher, Ostap Bender never had it so good: she has given him a whole new audience."--Caryl Emerson, AATSEEL President"Bravo for Anne O. Fisher for her wonderful annotated translation of Ilf and Petrov's hilarious road novel,The Little Golden Calf. Students will find the rascally hero to be the ideal tour guide for travels in Stalin's Russia. As a fictional character, Ostap Bender begs comparison with the greatest Russian literary rebels, as well as with the bandits of folklore, pop fiction, and legend. Russian Life Books has done a very nice job of producing the volume, which will prove enormously useful in classes in Russian History and Literature." --Professor Jeffrey Brooks, The Johns Hopkins University"Two comprehensive introductions and a full set of notes and appendices explaining the novel's colorful characters and frequent catchphrases offer English-speaking readers a detailed legend for the road map of Soviet culture provided by Ostap Bender's wild ride, keeping his irrepressible spirit alive." --Louisville Courier Journal"Bravo for Anne O. Fisher for her wonderful annotated translation of Ilf and Petrov's hilarious road novel,The Little Golden Calf. Students will find the rascally hero to be the ideal tour guide for travels in Stalin's Russia. As a fictional character, Ostap Bender begs comparison with the greatest Russian literary rebels, as well as with the bandits of folklore, pop fiction, and legend. Russian Life Books has done a very nice job of producing the volume, which will prove enormously useful in classes in Russian History and Literature." ---Professor Jeffrey Brooks, The Johns Hopkins University"Two comprehensive introductions and a full set of notes and appendices explaining the novel's colorful characters and frequent catchphrases offer English-speaking readers a detailed legend for the road map of Soviet culture provided by Ostap Bender's wild ride, keeping his irrepressible spirit alive." --Louisville Courier Journal