Zoo or Letters Not about Love by Viktor Shklovsky Paperback Book 9781628974966

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 authors own unrequited love