Zoo, or Letters Not about Love (Russian Literature (Dalkey Archive)) - Tapa blanda

.".. a work of gossip, allusion and esoteric reference, with devices -- some typographical -- which Shklovsky borrowed from Sterne, whom he much admired. " -- John Bayley, Listener

..". a work of gossip, allusion and esoteric reference, with devices--some typographical--which Shklovsky borrowed from Sterne, whom he much admired. "--John Bayley, Listener

While living in exile in Berlin, the formidable literary critic Viktor Shklovsky fell in love with Elsa Triolet. He fell into the habit of sending Elsa several letters a day, a situation she accepted under one condition: he was forbidden to write about love. Zoo, or Letters Not about Love is an epistolary novel born of this constraint, and although the brilliant and playful letters contained here cover everything from observations about contemporary German and Russian life to theories of art and literature, nonetheless every one of them is indirectly dedicated to the one topic they are all required to avoid: their author's own unrequited love.