A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

by George Saunders

Let’s first just notice this as a structural module, a pair of before-and-after photographs. Before: The weather is great, the world is beautiful, they’re happy. After: The weather goes bad, the world goes ugly, they’re mad. The storm introduces into the story the notion that happiness exists in relation to material conditions, conditions beyond our control. It’s not always within our power to choose to be happy. Happiness is a gift, a conditional gift. We’d best accept it when it comes. Feeling happy can be a valuable tool, a necessary condition for doing good. (It’s hard to “Do good!” or even “Feel okay!” when you’re “cold and messy and uncomfortable through and through.”) And isn’t it nice (doesn’t it refresh us and increase the possibility that we might be able to do good in the world, wouldn’t we be foolish to refuse the empowering uplift) when we come in from the rain to find the beautiful Pelageya bringing us towels and soap and dressing gowns and slippers and tea?