Maxine Chernoff

American poet and fiction writer Maxine Chernoff has more than two dozen published books to her credit. BOP, one of her first, was published as part of the 1980s Vintage Contemporaries series, a dozen finely crafted and frequently humorous short stories mostly set in her native city of Chicago. I thoroughly enjoyed reading and would like to share my observations on my very favorite, the title story, BOP, about the curious, somewhat wacky adventures of an older gentleman from Russia who immigrated to the United States and currently resides in Chicago.

Duplication Gone Wild: Ever since Oleg Lung left his home city of Moscow for Chicago three years ago, he’s been photocopying everything he can get his hands on, things such as grocery ads, Cubs schedules, magazine photos. As he tells the perplexed woman at the Xerox machine, the duplication of materials is of great interest to him and he’d even make copies of his hair, clothing, food and bowls if he could. And Oleg is not only Mr. Copy-It-All, he is a real Mr. Know-It-All, totally in command of such vital information as which American city (Los Angeles) has the highest ratio of pets to people. Oleg’s small apartment looks like a cross between a museum of American memorabilia and a tribute to American pop culture.

Jesters: Oleg returns to his apartment but there is not peace and quiet. He can hear all the banging in the apartment directly above his, two performers running through their skits in preparation for their show. How can those two jesters (Oleg calls them jesters; in fact, they are mimes) make so much noise since they perform in silence, doing things like pulling on ropes or acting out the human washing machine? Oleg despises what they do; such silence reminds him of loneliness and he had more than enough loneliness already. His usual protest nowadays takes the form of tapping on the ceiling with his broomstick. The jesters, in turn, have taken to giving Oleg free tickets to their performances.

Opinions: Everyone in America, young and old, rich and poor, has opinions on every conceivable topic imaginable, opinions on where dogs should leave their crap, adopting infants, homosexuals, facial hair, cooking cabbage, feeding robins.. Oleg reads all the opinions in the “Personal View” column of the Chicago newspaper and spends much time writing his own opinions to the paper. When you come to America, he quickly learned, you are entitled to not only have opinions but you can share your opinions wherever and whenever you please. Ah, freedom!

Nighthawk: Oleg works every night nine until five in the morning, sitting at a switchboard hooked up to an alarm system. A Mr. Kaplan was overjoyed at giving Oleg the job since Mr. Kaplan’s own father, an untrained illiterate immigrant to American made it in this country only because somebody gave him a job. Relaying the story back when they first met, Mr. Kalan began crying and hugged Oleg. Oleg enjoys the job since he can sleep during most of his working hours and has free time during the day to do what he really wants to do: go to the library.

Bookworms: One day at the public library, sitting at one of the tables with several other readers, Carrie Remm, a ten-year-old girl asked Oleg for a pen since her pen ran out of ink. One thing led to another and Oleg not only struck up a conversation with Carrie but they both left the library so they could continue their talk. Among other things, Carrie told Oleg about how her parents are divorced and her mother is always sad because she had an operation and can’t have any more children. Carrie and Oleg really hit it off and make plans to have dinner together Saturday night, his night off from work, at Carrie’s apartment.

Get Well Card: Oleg is concerned, even worried, about Mrs. Remm’s grief at losing her reproductive ability. He doesn’t want to do the wrong thing but decides to give Mrs. Remm roses and a card reading: “With extreme sympathy upon your loss." and signs the card with his first name, hoping for the intimacy that comes with first names. Sidebar: Maxine Chernoff renders this meeting of cultures, old Russian and new America with a tender, light, humorous touch.

Claire: One of the more charming scenes in the story is when on Saturday night Oleg enters the Remm apartment and hands Carrie’s mother the roses and get well card. Carrie’s mom, Claire Remm, is confused and much taken back. When Carrie told her she has a new friend from Russia she meet at the library coming to dinner, Claire was expecting a little Russian boy not a full-grown sixty-year old man. Anyway, after some initial awkwardness, everyone is relaxed and happy. After dinner, they all decide to go out on the town. When Claire suggests a movie, Oleg says he has something even better, a special treat; he has three tickets for an evening of pantomime!

Bop: Several days later, Oleg takes a trip to the beach. He meets a little boy, barely two, but there’s a dilemma: it appears his parents left their little boy on the beach all by himself. Oleg sits next to the boy, asks him his name. The boy says Bop. Oleg waits for hours until the beach is closed, and since, nobody has returned to claim the little boy, he takes Bop home with him. What to do? Actually, he knows a friend who always wanted a little brother and a woman who always wanted another child but cannot give birth now that she had her operation. Oleg cleans up the little boy and gets him nice and ready since a visit is in order. You will have to read for yourself to see what happens next in this sweet story.


The author at the time when she wrote BOP and the other stories in this collection.… (plus d'informations)

American poet and fiction writer Maxine Chernoff has more than two dozen published books to her credit. BOP, one of her first, was published as part of the 1980s Vintage Contemporaries series, a dozen finely crafted and frequently humorous short stories mostly set in her native city of Chicago. I thoroughly enjoyed reading and would like to share my observations on my very favorite, the title story, BOP, about the curious, somewhat wacky adventures of an older gentleman from Russia who immigrated to the United States and currently resides in Chicago.

Duplication Gone Wild: Ever since Oleg Lung left his home city of Moscow for Chicago three years ago, he’s been photocopying everything he can get his hands on, things such as grocery ads, Cubs schedules, magazine photos. As he tells the perplexed woman at the Xerox machine, the duplication of materials is of great interest to him and he’d even make copies of his hair, clothing, food and bowls if he could. And Oleg is not only Mr. Copy-It-All, he is a real Mr. Know-It-All, totally in command of such vital information as which American city (Los Angeles) has the highest ratio of pets to people. Oleg’s small apartment looks like a cross between a museum of American memorabilia and a tribute to American pop culture.

Jesters: Oleg returns to his apartment but there is not peace and quiet. He can hear all the banging in the apartment directly above his, two performers running through their skits in preparation for their show. How can those two jesters (Oleg calls them jesters; in fact, they are mimes) make so much noise since they perform in silence, doing things like pulling on ropes or acting out the human washing machine? Oleg despises what they do; such silence reminds him of loneliness and he had more than enough loneliness already. His usual protest nowadays takes the form of tapping on the ceiling with his broomstick. The jesters, in turn, have taken to giving Oleg free tickets to their performances.

Opinions: Everyone in America, young and old, rich and poor, has opinions on every conceivable topic imaginable, opinions on where dogs should leave their crap, adopting infants, homosexuals, facial hair, cooking cabbage, feeding robins.. Oleg reads all the opinions in the “Personal View” column of the Chicago newspaper and spends much time writing his own opinions to the paper. When you come to America, he quickly learned, you are entitled to not only have opinions but you can share your opinions wherever and whenever you please. Ah, freedom!

Nighthawk: Oleg works every night nine until five in the morning, sitting at a switchboard hooked up to an alarm system. A Mr. Kaplan was overjoyed at giving Oleg the job since Mr. Kaplan’s own father, an untrained illiterate immigrant to American made it in this country only because somebody gave him a job. Relaying the story back when they first met, Mr. Kalan began crying and hugged Oleg. Oleg enjoys the job since he can sleep during most of his working hours and has free time during the day to do what he really wants to do: go to the library.

Bookworms: One day at the public library, sitting at one of the tables with several other readers, Carrie Remm, a ten-year-old girl asked Oleg for a pen since her pen ran out of ink. One thing led to another and Oleg not only struck up a conversation with Carrie but they both left the library so they could continue their talk. Among other things, Carrie told Oleg about how her parents are divorced and her mother is always sad because she had an operation and can’t have any more children. Carrie and Oleg really hit it off and make plans to have dinner together Saturday night, his night off from work, at Carrie’s apartment.

Get Well Card: Oleg is concerned, even worried, about Mrs. Remm’s grief at losing her reproductive ability. He doesn’t want to do the wrong thing but decides to give Mrs. Remm roses and a card reading: “With extreme sympathy upon your loss." and signs the card with his first name, hoping for the intimacy that comes with first names. Sidebar: Maxine Chernoff renders this meeting of cultures, old Russian and new America with a tender, light, humorous touch.

Claire: One of the more charming scenes in the story is when on Saturday night Oleg enters the Remm apartment and hands Carrie’s mother the roses and get well card. Carrie’s mom, Claire Remm, is confused and much taken back. When Carrie told her she has a new friend from Russia she meet at the library coming to dinner, Claire was expecting a little Russian boy not a full-grown sixty-year old man. Anyway, after some initial awkwardness, everyone is relaxed and happy. After dinner, they all decide to go out on the town. When Claire suggests a movie, Oleg says he has something even better, a special treat; he has three tickets for an evening of pantomime!

Bop: Several days later, Oleg takes a trip to the beach. He meets a little boy, barely two, but there’s a dilemma: it appears his parents left their little boy on the beach all by himself. Oleg sits next to the boy, asks him his name. The boy says Bop. Oleg waits for hours until the beach is closed, and since, nobody has returned to claim the little boy, he takes Bop home with him. What to do? Actually, he knows a friend who always wanted a little brother and a woman who always wanted another child but cannot give birth now that she had her operation. Oleg cleans up the little boy and gets him nice and ready since a visit is in order. You will have to read for yourself to see what happens next in this sweet story

The author at the time when she wrote BOP and the other stories in this collection.… (plus d'informations)

For this book, Chernoff gathered various texts pertaining to the concept of "giving" or "gifts," ranging from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Gifts," to Marcel Mauss' The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies, to DivorceSource.com's "The Question of the Ring." Thus gathered, she culls interesting phrases from them and jettisons the rest, effectively taking the discourse and exploding it into a book-sized cloud. This doesn't reduce it to nonsense, however—the theme of the gift persists—but by shattering the originals she decontextualizes the fragments, transforming them into curious artifacts, rewarding of close examination. The result of arranging these artifacts is not to make an argument about giving, exactly, but to do something more valuable: to try to illustrate (albeit obliquely) the entire sphere of human thinking that surrounds the concept. Fascinating, occasionally moving. Recommended.… (plus d'informations)

This book begins powerfully and movingly; Nancy Horvath and her 11-year-old Danny move into their dream house and Danny quickly becomes friends with ten-year-old Eddie next door. One day Eddie brings over a hunting bow and playfully aims it at Danny and his dog. In the tussle that follows, Danny accidentally shoots and kills his friend. The rest of the novel deals with the repercussions of that accident, mostly in a moving and realistic way. But the book is not well-served by the complication of Nancy's affair with Eddie's father, Frank, and is marred by the unbelievable denoument when Frank finally reacts in a powerful fashion to the tragedy. Also, I wonder about the author's decision to make a hunting crossbow the instrument of death - I mean, how many accidental crossbow deaths like this happen each year? - instead of the more common and familiar family handgun. The author has also chosen to jump about between perspectives and voices in telling the story, and it is at times distracting. The natural tendency is to compare this with Marly Swick's much superior and similar-themed "Evening News". Although this inconsistent book does fall short in comparison, it is still a worthwhile and poignant read.… (plus d'informations)