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The Letter Killers Club

by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, Joanne Turnbull (Translator), Caryl Emerson (Introduction)

3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 · rating details · 144 ratings · 24 reviews

A New York Review Books Original

The Letter Killers Club is a secret society of self-described “conceivers” who, to preserve the purity of their conceptions, will commit nothing to paper. (What, after all, is your run-of-the-mill scribbler of stories if not an accomplished corruptor of conceptions?) The logic of the club is strict and uncompromising. Every Saturday, members...more

Paperback, 123 pages

Published December 6th 2011 by NYRB Classics (first published 1976)

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May 07, 2013 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: metafiction, books-about-hamlet

"The Russian Borges" will do well enough to describe Krzhizhanovsky, although Ficciones was written twenty years after this book. Aggressively meta and weird, he comes by way of Gogol and Zamyatin, and (so I've heard) Kafka - although that influence doesn't show here. Either it appears in his other works, or lazy people just like to throw around the word "Kafkaesque" because it sounds cool. (Joanne Turnbull claims that Krzhizhanovsky didn't read Kafka until over a decade after writing this.) Any...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Don rated it 5 of 5 stars

Three reasons I enjoyed this book:
(1) As the merest neophyte theater goer, I was entranced with how the novella was rooted in theater. The Letter Killers Club is a group of “conceivers” who meet weekly to pour out original literary concepts orally which are treated as imaginary books. I am immensely curious to find out what the author thought of Artaud and his Theater of Cruelty. The first meeting unveils an inspired take on Hamlet. The theme of “the rest is silence” infuses the rest of the book...more

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Feb 17, 2012 Dwight added it

My notes on the book (I can't call it a review)

Instead of a normal post, I’ll include a few of my thoughts as I read it. My notes won’t mean much unless you understand the format of the novel: the book focuses on a secret group of men who see conceptions as purer than what is committed to paper. These “conceivers” meet each Saturday in an empty personal library to relay their conceptions, challenging each other to perfect their tales.

A few of my notes:

• The introduction by Caryl Emerson is one...more

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May 21, 2012 Nicholas During rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very Borgesian little book, concerned with testing the limits of narrative and the creative process that produces it. I really liked this book a lot. It has very interesting things to say about what fiction is, particularly on the idea of inspiration and derivation from novels that have come before, or should I say responses to fiction that comes before. I think it is trying to say something like: "all narrative comes from sources, whether books that were written before or experiences by the a...more A very Borgesian little book, concerned with testing the limits of narrative and the creative process that produces it. I really liked this book a lot. It has very interesting things to say about what fiction is, particularly on the idea of inspiration and derivation from novels that have come before, or should I say responses to fiction that comes before. I think it is trying to say something like: "all narrative comes from sources, whether books that were written before or experiences by the author. What would a narrative be like if it came completely from the isolated imagination of the author." The answer of course is that this is impossible, and in fact this book has many sources. Borges can't be one since it was written in 1926; but Shakespeare (obviously from the first story and from the "mirroring" that Emerson discusses in the intro) and Chaucer are the big ones I saw.

The other theme here is censorship, and indirectly political will exerting itself on the individual. Not surprising when one thinks of the world this book was written in. Krizizhanovsky was relentlessly censored, and so you can see the exploration of the theme of what happens to a writer how can't write (or publish), and the inverse, what happens to a book that can't be written (or published). The ending with the suicide of Rar, does remind me of the life of Sergei Yesenin (and perhaps Aleksander Blok?), and I can imagine K. in a sort of discussion of the things that brought him to commit such a terrible act. Because you can't get published, really? And as Emerson points out in the intro this book is somewhat skeptical of the power of literature. And at the same time, interested in the way that literature can explore and redefine real matter (not to get too materialist). On the other hand the story of the "exes" is a more common, but very good, sci-fi treatment of the dangers of totalitarianism.

There's probably a lot more to say on this small book, which just goes to show how good it is. Anyone who is interested in the metaphysics of fiction and the rebellious modernist writers of the early Soviet era, will really enjoy this book.(less)

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May 02, 2013 Marina_f rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1920s, russian, polish

Право на замысел принадлежит всем: и профессионалу, и дилетанту.

Я очень сильно не люблю поэзию - текучесть текста вызывает у меня сонливость и я отвлекаюсь на собственные мысли. Но другое дело проза Кржижановского, которая настолько поэтична! - та же текучесть смысла накладывается на четкость прозы, превращаясь в нечто настолько красивое, тонкое, вычурное... Грустно, что такие гении слова, как Кржижановский, совсем не известные даже на родине.

Идея повести очень... Очень, так сказать, многогранна. Каждый ее воспримет в силу собственного склада ума, творческого или аналитического. Я - более творческий, поэтому восприняла повесть через призму собственных профессионально-этических проблем.
По Кржижановскому, Идея - это высшее создание, но если принести, выпустить ее в обычный мир, Замысел может разорваться от резонанса с нашим простецким миром. Герои решают выпускать свои идеи исключительно в темной небольшой комнате с пустыми книжными полками, заполняя их своими сырыми зародышами великих Идей. Эти четыре истории, каждая моральное продолжение предыдущей, заслуживают отдельного внимания к автору - по мне, если бы Кржижановский развил свою антиутопию в отдельное произведение, Хаксли, Замятин и Оруэлл были бы немного позади никому не известного ныне Кржижановского.

Вторая грань книги - это читатели. Люди, которые захвачены Идеями других людей, и погружаясь в них, теряют свою способность к такому же рождению великих Мыслей. Палка о двух концах... Кто из ярых любителей чтения хотя бы раз не задумывался о том, что он тоже может писать? А сколько действительно пыталось писать и с гордостью думает, про ту маленькую повесть, стихи, зачаток романа в столе, про которые никто не должен узнать? Главный герой, не писатель, в конце так же, насытившись Мыслями, пишет эту самую повесть, понимая, что

Слова злы и живучи, - и всякий, кто покусится на них, скорее будет убит ими, чем убьет их.

Потому что любой творческий человек понимает, что долго держать в себе свои Идеи очень чревато, потом они хлынут как вода во время потопа, и убьют все на своем пути. Невозможно не творить, если мысли и идеи сидят в твоей голове - это такая же зависимость, но только от холста, от карандаша.(less)

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Mar 14, 2012 Tom rated it 4 of 5 stars

If I were writing in a music magazine, and music magazines reviewed NYRB re-issues of novels instead of compact discs of popular music, or if this was a compact disc of popular music and not a novel re-issued in NYRB, then I would say something like, this is the mad mutant offspring of Jerome K. Jerome and Stanislaw Lem, on acid, except I wouldn't say those names, probably, because this would be a reissue of a lost art rock album by a member of Henry Cow, or something like that, this book isn't...more

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May 16, 2013 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Letter Killers is a fascinating novella about a group of "conceivers" who believe that ideas shouldn't be written down, that putting words on paper, into circulation, destroys the purity of the ideas behind them. The narrator happens upon the club, and sits in with them on their Saturday meetings where they take turns telling stories that will never see the light of day, and never leave the room. There is tension in the group as they directly, and indirectly through their stories, debate the...more The Letter Killers is a fascinating novella about a group of "conceivers" who believe that ideas shouldn't be written down, that putting words on paper, into circulation, destroys the purity of the ideas behind them. The narrator happens upon the club, and sits in with them on their Saturday meetings where they take turns telling stories that will never see the light of day, and never leave the room. There is tension in the group as they directly, and indirectly through their stories, debate the central premise of their club and the need to give words and ideas a physical presence.

So, we know how this all turns out - we have the book, drawn from the narrator's experiences with the club. But the fun is in the getting there, in the tales and in the sparring of the club members. This is one of the few collections of linked short stories I've read where the overarching linking story is as or more interesting than the individual tales. And those aren't too shabby. There's an amazing story based on Krzhizhanovsky's thoughts about twinning and splitting of characters in Shakespeare. An actor not feeling up to the task of Hamlet, finds himself in an imaginary realm of roles, filled with countless personified actors' interpretations of Hamlet from the last few hundred years. He switches with one of these actual historical versions of Hamlet, who immediately sets to work taking over his life and the pursuit of the girl he has a crush on - it made me think of Grant Morrison's writing where the boundary of imaginary and "actual" reality is often breaking down. My other favorite involved a dystopia where scientists and ruling capitalists/politicians expose free thinkers (and eventually pretty much everyone) to an automatonizing virus.

The introduction downplays the effects that the political climate had on Krzhizhanovsky's writing but it's hard to deny how his themes must have been shaped or at least informed by his almost complete inability to get anything published in the 1920s and 30s Soviet Union, not to mention the repression, paranoia, and increasingly imaginary reality promoted by Stalinist Russia. The end of the book is fitting as the concepts of the club are finally loosed into the world -an inversion of Krzhizhanovsky's struggle - constantly writing and trying to get his ideas out into the world, his books remained mostly unpublished in his lifetime. (less)

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Jul 01, 2012 Declan rated it 2 of 5 stars

For me reading this novel was like trying to set wet timber alight. All the materials I needed were present, and there were a few sparks, but I just couldn't get a flame to take hold. The framework of the book reminded me of If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - a series of unconnected (or very slightly connected)stories linked by a sequential narrative - but it lacked all of the fun and much of the invention of that wonderful book. I think I understood some of the author's intentions (the slipper...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature-russian

Not that Soviet fiction is ever particularly easy, but this is a knotty little book. The Letter Killers Club of the title gets together every Saturday to share stories. The best story, a rather thinly disguised critique of Communist authoritarianism, concerns a virus that causes the complete severing of the will and the body. These zombies ( called "exes") are then controlled by a central device operated by the scientist authorities ("innervators):

"The ether wind that had begun to blow from the...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nyrb, 2011

An instant classic of early surrealism. Which might not mean what you think it means; since surrealism creates its own contexts that defy easy comparison, recommending a surrealist novel often feels like saying, "buy this Britney Spears album, it's her best work." Fortunately, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, whose 1926 novel is being published for the first time in English after being discovered in the 1960's in the Soviet archives, manages to put these short story fragments into a somewhat useful set...more

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Dec 25, 2011 Nate D rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: doomed-heretics-of-the-revolution, russia, nyrb, interwar-maladies, previously-unreviewed

In cases of stories with presented as a novel via a narrative frame the two most common cases are:

1. stories are stronger than frame, and really don't need it around at all. Possibly narrative frame undermines stories altogether.
2. Narrative frame intrigues, but is strained by effort to hold disconnected stories together.

Typically, either of these cases are the result of the stories written previously without inhernet connection finding themselves shoe-horned together for publication at a later...more

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Jan 23, 2012 Adam Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Interesting meditation on the relationship between conceptions in the mind and conceptions that are pinned to paper in the form of the written word.
The Letter Killers Club is a group of writers who tell stories and discuss with one another without using notes, continuing the oral tradition and trying to be faithful to pure conceptions that exist in the mind. The politics and philosophies of the different members creates the intrigue that propels the narrative.
This was my book club book this mont...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Jon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: russian

An absolutely brilliant frame story where the connections and correspondences between stories and the frame itself are multifaceted and frustratingly complex. The ingenuity, variety, and wit on display are dazzling. The implicit critiques of not only Bolshevism but modernism are withering. Like the Canterbury Tales in reverse, this one ends in spring--spring rendered as winter's "death agony."

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Jul 29, 2012 Ray Lucas rated it 4 of 5 stars

A curious little novella - quite a quick read, but worth it if the likes of Calvino or Borges are your thing. Feels like it could have developed further, but contains some very nice ideas.

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Dec 09, 2011 Cliff rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: new-york-review-books, mi-piace, 2011

Beautiful, surreal book on the subversive power of the oral tradition. The combination of extemporaneous storytelling and imagination among an intimate group also draws out its politics.

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Jun 29, 2012 toni rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bibliomaniac, o-my-precious, hamletburg

For weeks after I read it, a thought has kept recurring to me with ever-increasing frequency and insistence (a proper clichéd analogy would be comparing it to NHK's door knocking). And that is, what will happen to me if all my books are gone? Will the emptiness become a source of inspiration, or will it eat me alive?

Right now as I am writing this, I don't have the book at hand. With its invisible presence, all I can conjure up is how light it is, its lovely cover design, The Land of Roles, Haml...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Betsy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Dark, strange, fascinating riff on the power of the written word. The storytelling-within-the-story was wonderful

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Jul 07, 2012 Greg rated it 4 of 5 stars

Liked this very much. The fourth story was my favorite.

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Feb 16, 2012 Jon Anzalone rated it 4 of 5 stars

Incredibly dense and difficult to read, and I'm not certain of any lasting literary value, but the stories are fascinating ruminations on impossible ideas. Krzhizhanovsky would have made a great epistolary partner with Lovecraft and his contemporaries. It's more of a fun brag to say you've read "a story where, during a performance of Hamlet, the actor absconds with the role" than to actually read through it.

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Aug 31, 2012 Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's really more a collection of short stories more than a novel in a framework of being told as part of a series of club meetings. Krzhizhanovsky is a masterful storyteller. The images he paints and the witticisms sprinkled throughout his work is absolutely original and engaging. His insights (in some cases sadly) are as relevant today as when he wrote them.

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Mar 12, 2013 Chris Ovdiyenko rated it 1 of 5 stars

Utterly unreadable. Loathed it, seriously regret wasting the time it took to read this and abandoned it halfway through because of it was making me lose faith in life. Skip this, it tries WAY too hard to be "literary".

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Nov 28, 2012 Megan rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed parts of this book. The opening passage is the best part of the book, it becomes relatively un-engaging later, but it is incredibly thought provoking, especially when you are presented with the socio-political and personal context of the author.

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Nov 14, 2012 kissmyshades rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, slavic

As others have noted, the frame seemed a bit weak but I think it may have been intentionally so.
pq
Really, this novella is pretty impressive.The in-ex story is particularly great.

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Jan 12, 2012 Ben rated it 5 of 5 stars

Strange, obtuse, textured and brilliant.

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May 21, 2013 Alfonso marked it as to-read

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May 17, 2013 Drea rated it 4 of 5 stars

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About Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky

Сигизмунд Кржижановский

Sigizmund Dominikovich Krzhizhanovsky (Russian: Сигизму́нд Домини́кович Кржижано́вский) (February 11 [O.S. January 30] 1887, Kiev, Russian Empire — 28 December 1950, Moscow, USSR) was a Russian and Soviet short-story writer who described himself as being "known for being unknown" and the bulk of whose writings were published posthumously.

Many details of Krzhizhanovsky's l

...more

Сигизмунд Кржижановский

Many details of Krzhizhanovsky's life are obscure. Judging from his works, Robert Louis Stevenson, G. K. Chesterton, Edgar Allan Poe, Nikolai Gogol, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and H. G. Wells were major influences on his style. Krzhizhanovsky was active among Moscow's literati in the 1920s, while working for Alexander Tairov's Chamber Theater. Several of Krzhizhanovsky's stories became known through private readings, and a couple of them even found their way to print. In 1929 he penned a screenplay for Yakov Protazanov's acclaimed film The Feast of St Jorgen, yet his name did not appear in the credits. One of his last novellas, "Dymchaty bokal" (The smoky beaker, 1939), tells the story of a goblet miraculously never running out of wine, sometimes interpreted as a wry allusion to the author's fondness for alcohol. He died in Moscow, but the place where he was buried is not known.

In 1976 the scholar Vadim Perelmuter discovered Krzhizhanovsky's archive and in 1989 published one of his short stories. As the five volumes of his collected works followed (the fifth volume has not yet reached publication), Krzhizhanovsky emerged from obscurity as a remarkable Soviet writer, who polished his prose to the verge of poetry. His short parables, written with an abundance of poetic detail and wonderful fertility of invention — though occasionally bordering on the whimsical — are sometimes compared to the ficciones of Jorge Luis Borges. Quadraturin (1926), the best known of such phantasmagoric stories, is a Kafkaesque novella in which allegory meets existentialism. Quadraturin is available in English translation in Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida, Penguin Classics, 2005.

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