Dear Reader,
On Happier in Hollywood this week, host Liz Craft recommended a 2026 Oscar-winning short, The Singers, based on Ivan Turgenev’s eponymous short story, which is currently on Netflix. She said her mother has watched it six times already. (It’s only 18 minutes long.)
While this is a modern-day take on it, you’d benefit from reading the story first. I encountered it last summer when I was listening to George Saunders’s excellent craft book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. I was pretty sure I wanted to order the book for myself, but it came available first on Libby as audio, so I borrowed it and quickly listened to it. So good!
I ordered it for my library. Immediately.
His book’s subtitle is “In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life.”
The cover, however, doesn’t actually use the Oxford comma, and I have no idea why not, or whether anyone else has noticed. (I’m sure they have. Maybe there have been comma conspiracies written about it. Personally, I’m a fan. Of the comma, I mean.)
But the title page inside does use it. So likely we’re dealing with a design issue.
I see. Pardon the rabbit hole.
Anywho, as I am taking a break from Netflix soon, I watched it right away. Then I watched it again.
Gorgeous.
I so badly want to say something, anything, about it, but I can’t without spoiling it. Do wait for your expectations to be subverted.
There. I hope I haven’t said too much.
I wish I could be there to see every one of my blog readers’ reactions to the short film.
All three are well worth your time: the Saunders book (so good!), the Turgenev short story, and the Netflix short.
dremadrudge.com 