What Happened to Anna K.
A Novel
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Anna Karenina is alive and well
Irina Reyn's brisk, audacious first novel transforms Tolstoy's Russians into soulless N.Y. immigrants.
BOOK REVIEW
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Irina Reyn
Touchstone: 244 pp., $24
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The JACKET flap on my college copy of "Anna Karenina" calls it "a masterpiece that bared the Russian soul." That dark Russian spirit, brooding and complicated, is what makes Tolstoy's story wonderful and his characters memorable. Religion, society and morality are all tied up in the distrust of any amount of happiness. Even the children are worried all the time.
"What Happened to Anna K.," the entertaining debut novel by Irina Reyn, is a modern retelling of "Anna Karenina" set in the Russian immigrant community of Queens. In Chapter 3, titled "The Great Russian Soul," the author tries to define it by quoting Dostoevsky and listing its modern permutations. More important, she speculates about whether her character Anna K. has a Russian soul or is completely Americanized. It seems Anna is more American than Russian, but Reyn decides that "shards of the Russian soul might have lodged themselves within her, unwilling to be removed." It is an interesting chapter in which Reyn speaks directly to the reader, much like authors did in 19th century novels. We are privy to her direct observations of the 35-year-old Anna and the community. This chapter, while humorous and fascinating, carries a significant weight. How significant will be apparent only at the end.
"Anna Karenina" is a favorite book of mine, often reread, and I was apprehensive at Reyn's audacity. But "What Happened to Anna K." is a wonderful read, and the similarities and updated moments are a delight. Just as Anna Karenina meets her undoing, the Count Vronsky, in a train station, so Anna K. meets David Zuckerman, the man who will derail her life, while waiting for a train. Tolstoy's young, sweet Kitty is Katia in Reyn's novel, and Reyn makes her believably kind, protected and clueless, even in post-9/11 New York. Lev is Lev in both novels, lovable for his awkward universality, but instead of farming he is a pharmacist, and instead of retreating to the peasants, he hides in movie theaters hoping to be absorbed into the world of French films.
