Love and politics in 'The Translator'

Is she translating his poetry, or is he translating her soul? The main heroine of John Crowley's latest novel "The Translator" ponders the question in the course of the book. Chrysta "Kit" Malone's life has been full of changes -her father works on the 1960s version of computer security and moves a lot to accommodate her job. \nIn 1961, Kit Malone, a contributor to a national anthology of young people's poetry, shakes hands with John F. Kennedy at a ceremony honoring the book's publication; the promise in her life seems even fresher than his own. \nFurious with her beloved brother for enlisting in the Army, she loses her virginity to a high school classmate and gets pregnant. Her Catholic parents are horrified, and Kit is sent off to a convent to bear her child, who dies within hours after birth. \nShortly after that, Kit's family finds out about her brother's death. The report states that it happened in an ammunition accident in the Philippines, but Kit doubts that after being told about the brewing hostility in Vietnam. At the age of 19, she starts her freshman year of college at a large university in an unnamed Midwestern state and is harrowed by grief. (On a side note -- the college sounds like IU, especially taking into consideration we have had a summer Russian program since the 1950s.)\nHere, Kit meets a professor who gives her back her voice. Innokenti Isayevich Falin is an émigré Russian poet exiled by Nikita Khruschev. Their entire relationship is based on poetry. She takes his class, and he asks her to translate his poetry. The novel has a lot to do with Falin's impact on Kit's life. Although some of the novel's episodes take place during Kit's adolescence and her later years, most of the novel is concerned with her time at the college, her time with Falin, which marks her profoundly. \nIndeed, the novel implies Kit's entire adult life is an afterthought of her affair with Falin. She goes on to marry and have children, yet we don't even learn the names of her family. \nAs a child, Falin grew up in Stalinist Russia without a family, belonging to the world of the besprizornye -- orphaned children living underground and in shadows, a kind of dark mirror of Russian society. Falin's ordeals represent the suffering of a nation. Kit's losses are those of an individual. But for both of them, poetry is a means of expressing their pain, an antidote to despair; it leads them to solace because it leads them, indirectly, to each other. Crowley masterfully gives a realistic voice to their suffering through the poetry, which peppers the pages. \nThere is much more to the novel besides Kit and Falin's relationship, but not all of it is quite as potent. The narrative jumps back and forth in time, introducing elements which complicate the story, situating it within the broader context of the Cold War, the collision course of American and Russian history.\nThere is a U.S. government agent who spies on Falin and tries to enlist Kit's help. There is Kit's sort-of-boyfriend, who is involved with radical student groups. \nAll these elements are woven into the novel, leading the reader to feel for the characters, weep with them, love with them. Although I have never read anything by Crowley before, I might just take up his other novels. \nCrowley is also the author of the Aegypt trilogy and the novels "The Deep," "Beasts," "Engine Summer" and the masterpiece "Little, Big." The Translator is Crowley's first book in 10 years.\nThe hardcover copy is available at Barnes and Nobles and Border's Books and Music for $24.95. All of Crowley's books are also available at IUB libraries.