Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

New on nybooks.com: Ian Frazier on Daniil Kharms, Edith Hall on Sappho, Jon O. Newmanon John le Carré and Agatha Christie, a poem by W.S. Merwin, the Istanbul of Orhan Pamuk and Maureen Freely, and Tim Judah’s photographs of Ukraine.

A Strangely Funny Russian Genius Ian Frazier Russian humor is to ordinary humor what backwoods fundamentalist poisonous snake handling is to a petting zoo. Russian humor is slapstick, only you actually die.   ADVERTISEMENT   Sensual Sappho Edith Hall A couple of complete poems and about two hundred fragments are all that remain of nine substantial books, in diverse genres and meters, that Sappho produced around 600 BC. Yet for all the meagerness of her extant poetry, she is a founder in many more respects than in teaching us what love feels like.   The Deadly Art of Double Deception Jon O. Newman For years I wondered whether the ingenious premise of Agatha Christie’s “The Witness for the Prosecution” influenced John le Carré to use the same premise in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. So I asked him, and he replied. But first the facts.   ADVERTISEMENT   Once Later W.S. Merwin It is not until later that you have to be young it is one of the things you meant to do later but by then there is someone else living there with the shades rolled down… (cont.)   Seeing Istanbul Again Maureen Freely When at last I had sent Orhan’s museum off to the publisher, I went back into my own head for what felt at first like a luxury vacation. Little by little, I translated myself out of Orhan’s Istanbul and back into my own.   Ukraine: Pictures of a Ceasefire Tim Judah In February a second Ukrainian ceasefire came into effect. The fighting has not stopped, though it has been much reduced. Few people think it will last. I took these photos while reporting from the region last month.