Zoo, or Letters Not about Love     by Viktor Shklovsky, Translated by Richard Sheldon Original title: Zoo Published by Dalkey Archive Press Pub. Date: October 1, 2001 Format: Paperback, 164 pages ISBN: 1564783111 List Price: $11.95 buy now directly from the publisher Free Shipping Worldwide

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While living in exile in Berlin, Viktor Shklovsky fell in love with Elsa Triolet (the "Alya" of thi s novel). Shklovsky was in 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 a void: their author's own unrequited love.

A leading theoretician of Russian Formalism, Viktor Shklovsky was a major influence on the development of contemporary Russian literature, criticism, and film theory. Several of his books have been translated into English, including Third Factory, Sentimental Journey, and Theory of Prose.

"Zoo is more than a moving evocation of the pain of exile and unrequited love . . . it is also rich with literary history."—New Leader

"Zoo, or Letters Not about Love is a work of gossip, allusion and esoteric reference, with devices—some typographical—which Shklovsky borrowed from Sterne, whom he much admired."—John Bayley, Listener

"The animals of the nearby zoo are symbols of his fellow migrs, captured and far from home . Telephones and automobiles—relatively new inventions in 1922—appear and reappear as magical agents of good and evil. This quasi-novel is a bizarre and brilliant book."—Charles Simmons, New York Times

"Zoo is an excellent example of experimentation with the narrative in the 1920s. . . . The style is futurist, for it turns the mechanical world into an emblem of longing and frustrated love."— Library Journal

"Shklovsky revitalizes the traditional epistolary novel."—Choice