Story Cafe : Chekhov and the meaning of life

'You ask me what life is? It is like asking what a carrot is. A carrot is a carrot, and nothing more is known.' – Chekhov

Story Cafe is back! Join us on a journey into the beating heart of humanity as we discuss one of Anton Chekhov's most remarkable stories, 'Gusev'.

'It was getting dark; it would soon be night.' Gusev and Pavel Ivanych are returning to Russia aboard a ship on the Pacific, both ill, both dying. From their stifling sickbay, they exchange meditations on life – one outraged, protesting life's injustices; the other uncomplaining and accepting. Around them the sea thrashes and the wind howls and Gusev falls in and out of feverish dreams of snowdrifts and home. At turns consoling and horrifying, Chekhov – father of the 'modern' short story and master of the form – brings the storyteller's art to bear on this uncompromising portrait of man and the sense of life.

Story Cafe is a monthly short-story discussion group. We meet on the first Monday of every month at Dundee Central Library.