The Russian Interpreter

by Michael Frayn

When a mercurial Moscow blonde and a visiting British businessman conduct an affair through their Russian interpreter it reveals all the deceptions of love and East-West relations.

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, Russia, Politics, Historical Fiction, Espionage

191 pages, Paperback

First published October 10, 1966

About the author

Michael Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy. His novels, such as Towards the End of the Morning, Headlong and Spies, have also been critical and commercial successes, making him one of the handful of writers in the English language to succeed in both drama and prose fiction. His works often raise philosophical questions in a humorous context. Frayn's wife is Claire Tomalin, the biographer and literary journalist.

Reviews

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Frayn's second novel, and my copy was an impulse buy in a second hand bookshop which I picked up almost on a whim, having enjoyed Spies a couple of years ago.

This book is an interesting mixture of styles - part Englishman abroad farce, part spy thriller. The main character Manning (the book is written from his perspective by an omniscient third person) is in Moscow "working" on a PhD thesis under the benevolent eye of his tutor Sasha. At the start of the book he hears from various acquaintances that his "old friend" Proctor-Gould is looking for him - though he has no memory of the man in question. Proctor-Gould, on old boy of Manning's Cambridge college, is on good terms with the Soviet authorities and runs a business the nature of which remains unclear, and as a non-Russian speaker he hires Manning as a personal interpreter.

Meanwhile Manning meets and falls for the mysterious Raya, but loses her to Proctor-Gould as soon as they meet. This sets in chain a complex plot full of entertaining and surprising turns in which nothing other than Manning's naivety is entirely what it seems. The first half of the book is comic in tone, the second half a little darker.

All in all an easy but very enjoyable read.

[Cherisa B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Silly and ultimately pointless

[Laysee · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Know the truth, even if it goes with you in silence to the grave." - These words are poignant in Frayn's story of espionage. The Russian Interpreter began guilelessly as a little romance between an English businessman (Gordon Proctor-Gould) and his new found Russian love interest (Raya). Paul Manning, an English student writing his thesis at Moscow University, was unwittingly drawn into an assignment larger and more bewildering than his ostensible role as a Russian interpreter for Proctor-Gould’s business and his infatuation with Raya. The playful humor, however, soon took on a sinister quality when the nature of Proctor-Gould’s business in Russia started to unfold. Frayn is a skilled master at telling stories of intrigue, deception, and counter-deception. When the novel ends, one suspects the truth hasn’t yet been told, at least not all of it. Interesting read that sheds some light on Russian consciousness. Frayn gets you laughing initially, then growing more indignant and perplexed, and finally leaves you wondering what indeed is the truth.

[Shakiba Bahrami · Rating 4 out of 5]

از متن کتاب :
سرانجام پرسید: "پس شاید خوب بودن رایا شبیه خوب بودن ساشاست؟"
منینگ فریاد کشید: "کاتیا! تو وسواس خوب بودن گرفتی!"
"نه، نه. من در مورد خدا وسواس دارم که خوب بودن از او ساطع میشه. وقتی می‌پرسم آیا رایا دختر خوبیه منظورم اینه که آیا وجودش مملو از خداونده یا نه. همانطور که وجود ساشا مملو از خداونده."
"وجود ساشا مملو از خداونده؟ چطور همچین چیزی ممکنه؟ اون یه آدم بی اعتقاده."
"اینکه ساشا چه نظری راجع به خودش داره خیلی مهم نیست."
"ولی کاتیا، من اصلا نمیفهمم! به نظر تو ساشا به قدرت وصله. بعد از اون طرف میگی خداوند طرف ضعیف‌هاست."
"وای پاول. خداوند که طرف کسی رو نمیگیره. این ما هستیم که طرف چیزی رو میگیریم."
"و میشیم مخالف ساشا؟ و خدای درون ساشا؟"
کاتیا کاملاً به هم ریخته بود. به سرعت گام‌هایش افزود و بدین ترتیب منینگ برای رسیدن به او دچار زحمت شد. کاتیا سرخ شده بود و انگشت‌هایش را محکم به لب‌هایش چسبانده بود. منینگ فکر می‌کرد نکند کاتیا گریه‌اش بگیرد.
بالاخره کاتیا گفت: "نمی‌دونم افکارم من رو به کجا میرسونن. یعنی من باید دستم رو در مخالفت با خداوند برگردونم؟ ولی دست من خود خداست! این یعنی خدا علیه خدا! چقدر گیج کننده! این چه مشکلاتیه که ما باهاشون مواجهیم!"




نویسنده خودش زمانی مترجم بوده و توی شوروی درس میخونده. خیلی از شخصیتها رو از افراد واقعی برداشت کرده. داستان قشنگی بود و کشش داشت. یه روزه خوندمش:))

[Mor‌TeZa · Rating 3 out of 5]

|\| | |_ @ ® > M0127324:
مترجم روسی..
خوب بود، بعضی جاهاش رو خیلی دوست داشتم.
نویسنده را توانا و سیر کلی داستان‌ رو جذاب یافتم.
بخوام خلاصه بگم: ادبیات کار بالاتر از انتظاری بود که داشتم، و جذابيت قصه، پایین تر از انتظارم.

تم ترجمه و زبان و مسائل و مبادلات زبانی همیشه برام خیلی جذاب بوده، و بسیار دوست داشتم روی این جنبه کار بیش تر تاکید میشد.
در مجموع، کار خوب و بسیار خوشخوانی بود. نمره واقعی من به کتاب سه و نیمه.

[Blaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another very enjoyable book by Frayn, well-structured, well-written with the right mix of elegance, wit, mystery and partial resolution. Not profound, but right as far as it goes.

I like his protagonists, perhaps because I sense in them a certain resemblance to myself. I appreciate their search for "the truth", their somewhat blinded belief in a simple, naive truth while around them the world's messiness and complexity denies them the clarity and justice they feel ought to be, because those who are not-him have their own, different needs and perspectives. The limitation of Frayn's work is that he doesn't seek to get inside those who are not-him; their needs and perspectives remain a mystery to him, while he experiences them as the disorder and injustice of the world.

His USSR of 1966 is the mystery behind the Iron Curtain, but I didn't sense it as particularly communist or hostile, more the national counterpart to England of the not-him of the protagonist. Which would be true just about anywhere outside of middle class London.

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little different but I kinda liked it. 2 1/2 stars

I'd never heard of Michael Frayn prior to this book. I happened to run into this book on my local discount bookstore and was intrigued by the title and the book cover. I thought The Russian Interpreter was an independent movie I may have seen. It's not but after reading this book it is most definitely a worthy candidate. This is a short book with excellent writing and I was shocked to see no quotes or much talk about it. Having finished the book, I kind of know why. Again the writing was quite good, the situations odd however, I would say while you're reading it the characters are interesting but the moment you put the book down I don't think they stick with you. I didn't have many moments that I wondered with anticipation what the characters next moves were outside of the book to the point that it motivated me to speedily pick up the book and return to the story at hand.

As per the title, Paul Manning is a British gentleman living in Russia working on his thesis, he is bilingual and finds himself employed as an interpreter. Manning precariously ends up in the employ of a fellow college chum/country man Gordon Proctor-Gould. Proctor-Gould is an odd character who fancy's himself some sort of self important dealer in personalities and liaison between Russia and the west. The intention is to have Manning interpret for Proctor-Gould as he portrays the successful man about town in his endeavor as what seems to be a career as a talent scout of sorts. He wants to bring interesting Russian people to Britain and make them celebrities. Of course, this is Russia so things are never just this simple. There are secrets, suspicions, odd political goings on. Everyone is suspected of being a spy. Nothing is as it seems. And what is the out come? Well it's very curious in deed.

The author did a good job. You really did get a good feel for the locations. You could feel this cold at times austere Russia. You could feel the sense of madness, confusion, paranoia, suspicion in the air. The writing style was not difficult to read. I also appreciate the author committing so much to such a short book. At one point I thought maybe it could go another hundred pages but it took a turn and I was thankful it knew when to finish itself.

Would I recommend it? Sure. Was not nuts about the conclusion but perfect books are rare. I want to go with a 2 1/2 but giving it only a two is too low a score when it's worthy of the half, it's really a 2 1/2. Good. Characters kinda interestingly odd but not memorable. And the ending was a little rushed, soft and flat. Yes, I will try another book by this author. The writing was good.

[Arash · Rating 3 out of 5]

_
ساشا خصوصیات شخصیتی ما در جایگاه قدرت نیستن. منظورم احترام به صرف شخصیت فرد، بدون در نظر گرفتن کارایی اون فرده. هدف ما اینه.
ساشا چند بار سریع پلک زد.
سپس گفت:برعکس، فکر می کنم این رو یه بار به پاول گفتم، انسان باید احساس کنه وجودش مورد نیازه. شک ندارم قبول داری اینکه به کسی احساس نیاز داشته باشی بالاترین حد احترامیه که می تونی برای اون فرد قائل باشی؟
ساشا،اینکه بهش نیاز داشته باشی؟ نیاز داشته باشی تا برای منظور خاصی ازش استفاده کنی؟ فقط به خاطر سهمی که اون آدم می تونه تو کاری داشته باشه؟
دقیقا
ساشا، فکر نمی کنی این عقیده یه کم اشکال داره؟ اینکه آدم وقتی به وجود کسی نیاز داشته باشه که بتونه از اون آدم استفاده کوه مثل این می مونه که از اون آدم به عنوان یه ابزار یا یه شیء استفاده کنه. این یعنی استثمار. ما می گیم انسان قابل احترامه نه به خاطر کاری که می تونه انجام بده، بلکه به خاطر اینکه انسانه.
_
این کتاب داستان رایا دختری روس است که نمی‌تواند به انگلیسی صحبت کند و با گوردون پراکترگلد انگلیسی که به مسکو آمده و زبان روسی نمی‌داند، رابطۀ عاشقانه‌ای را شروع می‌کند. در این میان نیاز آن‌ها به مترجم سبب می‌شود تا پاول منینگ که این وظیفه را به عهده گرفته است، از عمق رابطۀ آن‌ها آگاه و در سحر عشق و روابط غربی‌شرقی غرق ‌شود... مایکل فرین با به تصویر کشیدن فضای کمونیستی حاکم بر روسیه در خلال عاشقانه‌ای که به گفتۀ خودش چشم‌اندازی فرهنگی است، سفری در زمان به دوران دانشجویی‌اش در روسیه را می‌آفریند.
_
کتاب تداعی کننده فضای شوروی در دوران جنگ سرده، دورانی که اعتماد کردن به هرکسی امکان پذیر نبود حتی خانواده، دورانی که شوروی و آمریکا به دنبال کسب اطلاعات از هم بودن، حتی ریزترین جزئیات زندگی شخصی افراد به همین خاطر به هر ترفندی دست می زدند تا بتونن افراد لازم رو برای به دست آوردن این اطلاعات اجیر کنند. با این تفاسیر تصور کنین مردی آمریکایی عاشق زنی روسی بشه، آیا میشه اعتماد کرد؟ سرانجام چه خواهد بود؟

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Russian Interpreter is the story of a British academic based at Moscow University who becomes embroiled in an piece of minor espionage through no fault of his own. It’s funny, quirky and entertaining. Unlike most spy stories the focus is on character rather than plot but then Michael Frayn is not a writer of genre fiction but a literary novelist. There’s a lot of of playing with ideas which is rather characteristic of Frayn, and an emphasis on the aburdity of both the public and private posturing which we impose on others and our ourselves. It’s not profoundly moving but it’s certainly diverting.

[Philippe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this dark Cold War comedy of errors, in which naive Westerners are conned by imperturbable Russians. Perhaps in the end nobody knew what really had been going on in this hall of mirrors but the Soviets had the advantage of expecting to play by these rules. Lightweight but good. 3,5 stars.

[Edward Champion · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another day, another dull novel from Michael Fucking Frayn, who really isn't as smart as he thinks he is. Why do I even bother?

[Shahamat Shakir · Rating 3 out of 5]

The novel starts with the romance between an Englishman Gordon- Proctor- Gould and a Russian girl who he loved, Raya.

1. Gordon, yet to complete his English thesis at Moscow university did not want anything to distract him before his thesis completion.

2. Raya and Gordon- Proctor- Gould needed an interpreter because Proctor- Gould didn't understand Russian and Manning didn’t understand English. When Gordon Proctor Gould’s business starts to unfold in Russia, the playful humour turns into a threatening quality, by the hooligans.

Finally we see,

1. Frayn is a story teller that makes you laugh and afterwards makes you think after all what is the real truth.

2. The book is both hilarious and sinister.

[Parvaneh Hosseinzadeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

دانشجوی سابق دانشگاه کمبریج که برای ادامه تحصیل به شوروی کمونیستی رفته؛ درگیر روابطی متناقض می‌شه. از طرفی، یکی از هم‌وطنان انگلیسی او، نیاز به مترجم پیدا می‌کنه و این همکاری حوادثی رو در پی داره. . .

مترجم روسی، نمونه‌ای کامل از زندگی در جوامع کمونیستیه. جامعه‌ای که مردم طبقه کارگر در هر صورت بازنده هستند ولی تمام تلاششون رو می‌کنن تا برای مقامات بالاتر خودنمایی کنند. تحصیل‌کرده‌هایی که از هر چیزی، حتی از قوطی نسکافه، احساس خطر می‌کنند و از اخراج دیگر دانشگاهیان لبخند رضایت می‌زنند. . .

مترجم روسی در عین سادگی، پر از پیچیدگی سیاسی و اجتماعیه. شیوه متفاوتی از روابط رو نشون می‌ده و در نهایت مخاطب رو در پوچی رها می‌کنه. . .

[Andrew Wardle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slight story of a British academic who gets into difficulties in Cold War Moscow. Quietly humorous and satirical, with some gentle fun poked at naive university types, bureaucracy, and the spy novel genre.
Paul Manning is the young British postgraduate student, on a rather loose secondment to the "Faculty of Administrative Management Sciences" at Moscow University whilst supposedly working on his "sickly" PhD thesis. He is contacted by a certain Gordon Proctor-Gould, a businessman who claims to have known him at Cambridge, though Paul doesn't remember anything about him. Proctor-Gould wants to use his services as an interpreter to help in his business dealings, and, needing some extra cash, Paul agrees.
Complications ensue when they fall in love/lust with the same young woman, and Paul finds himself embroiled both in Gordon's rather ill-defined business affairs and his love-life.......
The setting is the Soviet Union in the 1960s, amid East-West tensions, spy paranoia, and an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust, both official and private. It only gets 4 stars because in the end it strains credulity too far - I'll say no more for fear of spoilers.

The novel is an easy read - short, and the tight plot keeps you turning the pages. There is satire, gentle humour , and some farce, but also poignancy and pathos, and some perceptive insights into our relationships with other people and with other cultures. He writes a funny/sad riff on the agonies of early courtship, and reminds me of Javier Marias in a section about the potential for translators/interpreters to abuse their position of power.
And has this to say about the dilemmas of espionage: "But thorough mutual espionage is a blessing to both sides. How can we politick safely against each other unless we can be sure that our true strength and intentions are known ?.......The information that spies steal is always vitiated by the possibility that its sources are corrupt. .......Stolen secrets either confirm what their recipients already know, or they're not believed."

Bureaucrats everywhere: an officious desk clerk demands to see Manning's pass before allowing him into the department, despite having seen him every day for months:
"'Someone came looking for you last night', said the old woman, while she waited to find out who Manning was."

And a personal resonance: "Everything seemed enormous and out of scale, like one's fingers ballooning beneath one's touch in a fever." I had that hallucination in a feverish illness in childhood, but had never heard anyone else describe it. But it's mentioned in Andrei Bely's "Petersburg" too, and in the lyrics of "Comfortably Numb" by the rock band Pink Floyd. Nothing new under the sun !

[Pascale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Atmospheric and enjoyable, but eminently forgettable. Manning is a young British student in Moscow who is already bored with the drabness of the city and its oppressive atmosphere. Although his supervisor takes pains to provide him with suitably cultural entertainment, he daydreams of meeting lightly-clad pretty girls. His life becomes a bit more exciting when he meets a fellow Brit, Gordon Proctor-Gould, a businessman supposedly involved in fostering better relations between Britain and the USSR. Gordon hires Manning as his interpreter, including in his private dealings with Raya, an alluring Russian girl they met on a group hike. Although Raya has clearly used Manning to get to Gordon, and behaves suspiciously right from the first, this only adds to her charm. Raya brazenly moves in with Gordon, and starts to steal the official gifts he's received from Russian officials, then his tins of instant coffee, and finally his books. At this point Gordon panics and enlists Manning into helping him retrieve the books. Raya claims to have sold them to a guy named Konstantin. When they raid Konstantin's home, they realize Raya must be his girlfriend. They hide some of the recovered books in a left luggage facility. When Manning challenges Gordon about his bizarre behavior, Gordon first tells him that he's been blackmailed into cooperating with MI5, then changes his tune and claims to be smuggling royalty payments to subversive Russian authors whose writings are not allowed to be published in the USSR. Not knowing which story to believe, Manning carries on helping Gordon until he is thrown in gaol. After several weeks in solitary confinement without being charged or questioned, he is put on a plane back to Britain. On the plane, he is reunited with Gordon who confirms the story of hidden cash within the books. To the last, Manning wants to believe his friend who seems too naive and sincere to be a spy, but he can't help remaining mistrustful. Like most spy stories I've ever read, this one pulled me in until the plot became too convoluted for my taste. Like Manning himself, I ended up frustrated and disgusted not to have a clear answer about Gordon's real activities. Maybe that was the point?

[Nigeyb · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Russian Interpreter is the fifth book I’ve read by Michael Frayn. I enjoy his work but this was the one I enjoyed the least.

We certainly get a flavour of the late 1950s Soviet Union. A cold, grumbling, paranoid, absurd world. Paul Manning is a standard Frayn character, observant yet simultaneously naive, innocent and guileless. The other characters are all quite well drawn however this short, ambiguous, slightly amusing novel never reaches lift off.

3/5


The Russian Interpreter is a story about Raya, a mercurial Moscow blonde who speaks no English, and the affair she is embarking upon with Gordon Proctor-Gould, a visiting British businessman who speaks no Russian. They need an interpreter; which is how Paul Manning is diverted from writing his thesis at Moscow University to become involved in all the deceptions of love and East-West relations.


After the death of Stalin in 1952, the Soviet Union opened its doors to the rest of the world and Michael Frayn was one of the first foreign students to enter the country. Drawing on his experience at Moscow University in the late 1950s, he brilliantly captures a country still recovering from the Second World War, racked with suspicion and intrigue, at once harsh and easy-going, lethargic and labour-intensive.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Frayn has become one of my favourite authors and I enjoyed this foray into 1966 Soviet Union. Paul Manning is a typical Frayn character, a young naive man, eternally working (or rather not working at all) on his thesis, while experiencing Russia. In Moscow he meets Gordon Proctor-Gould, a visiting British businessman. However, this is the Soviet Union, and the main business is spying so, while Frayn keeps things vague - like life - all of our characters suspect the others are up to something.

One of the most interesting characters is Raya, who throws herself first at Paul and then Gordon, moving in with him despite her not speaking a word of English and Proctor-Gould having no Russian. So it is Paul, disgruntled that the businessman seems to have stolen his girlfriend, who acts as the interpreter of the title, while Raya has her own motivations.

I only visited Russia once, in the early 1980's, but it felt very much like the Russia in this novel. Slightly bleak and down at heel, lacking consumer goods and with an air of suspicion. It was a beautiful country, with lovely people, but you felt you could truly vanish there. I enjoyed revisiting it fictionally and always love reading Frayn.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s all got a bit much, what with the constant and alarming global news, the new Ipcress File adaptation on TV, and me diving into Michael Frayn’s 1966 Cold War novel The Russian Interpreter (Faber). The author has a good eye for Soviet era Moscow, having visited several times in the 50s and 60s and his depiction is confident and convincing. The interpreter in the title is a British PhD student at Moscow University who is ‘commandeered’ to act as a translator for his brand new, oldest best friend and an attractive Russian blonde lady. The book is mysterious in places, funny in others, occasionally confusing and probably representative of what it was like to be in situ at the time, particularly when slightly naïve of what really is going on. I need a sorbet course book next.

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frayn is one of my favourite writers, and I didn't know that one so imagine my delight in finding it. And of course it does not disappoint, because Frayn is a master craftsman, and even though this is a very early one by him, he already has most of the goods to make it work.
Granted, it's not as funny as Frayn knows how to be, and perhaps less complex than he can also be (complex in the sense of wide ranging, and human psychology). It reminded me of the Fitzgerald 'The beginning of spring' (same country, kind of the same period although not exactly), same light touch, same attention to characters.
Frayn for ever!

[Robin Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to give this three and a half stars. It's Frayn so it's beautifully written, and lots of what happens is fascinating. But I didn't find it funny (perhaps you have to be in the right mood) and at the end I was left thinking 'what the heck was that all about', which can sometimes be a good thing but in this case was just annoying. I wanted to understand more of what had happened, and I felt a bit cheated.

[Robert Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny. Even funnier if you have experienced the idiosyncrasies of Soviet era Moscow.

[Mike Pinter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not quite the story you might have expected. A quick and pleasant read.

[UKEXPAT74 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story has somewhat dated (first published in 1966) but it is clever, well-written and amusing.

[Kat Heathcote · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book - bit of a slow start, but the characters were quirky and fun and the ending was fairly satisfying!

[*Rozhina* · Rating 3 out of 5]

ایده پردازی جدید و خوبی داشت،اگر انتهای داستان بطور دیگه ای به پایان میرسید قطعا زیباتر میشد.

[Gail · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amusing at first, but quickly becomes irritating

[Kowsar Bagheri · Rating 2 out of 5]

خسته‌کننده با ترجمه‌ای ضعیف

[Didar · Rating 4 out of 5]

میخوام خیلی بی منطق دوسش داشته باشم مگه چی میشه اگر از چیزی خوشم بیاد که فقط مربوط به خودمه و منینگ عزیز خیلی صبور بودی ممنونم.

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7

all the different permutations at the end were a bit confusing but maybe that's the point

[Amin · Rating 2 out of 5]

اگه نخوندینش چیزیو از دست ندادین.
کتابی که ارزش وقت گذاشتنو نداشت.