Please find today’s 13,095 word long short story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/185.html

Travis review

In today’s story Nikolay, Olga and readers learn through a harsh, crash course about the squalid lifestyle of the peasantry. Chekhov does a great a job in putting Nikolay and his family into a situation where they cannot turn back. Penniless they left Moscow for this awful village. What Nikolay remembered as idyllic, rustic living as an eight year old was disabused in the first moment they opened the door to his family’s hut. The details of the grime and the fish tasting tea with gray sugar pales in comparison to the shocking domestic violence scene that plays out when Kiryak comes home and punches his wife in the face. This horrific scene unsettles the reader for the rest of the story as the focus shifts from Nikolay to Olga along with scenes from other members of the family during a few awful months. The ending is shocking as well as Olga and her daughter not only fooled their in-laws but the reader until they finally start begging. They escaped, but are they better?

Rating: 8