If the Young Adult book market got ahold of Goncharov (1973) they would rename it A City Of Gonches and Rovs

Can’t talk rn I’m busy telling my therapist about Goncharov (1973)

Guys. Guys. It doesn’t matter whether Katya lives and faked her death or dies, because in a way she both lives and dies. 

Katya is ephemeral. She is a fantasy. Everything from her blond hair to her fur overcoat to her Marilyn-Monroe-Gone-Femme-Fatale is a perfectly curated narrative, because Katya does not truly exist out of the violence that has formed her. Sure, Goncharov sees her, but how real can you be to a man whose biggest enemy is time itself? Or maybe, he doesn’t see her at all - maybe he simply sees her ephemerality. He sees her as a creature of time, as a victim of time. Almost like him, but so different.

See, Goncharov (1973) is a story of unbecoming - at least, to Goncharov. He loses himself, he goes from Lo Straniero to just Goncharov. But to Katya? She becomes real. 

With Sofia, she is finally seen. She finally exists. And in the boat scene, when Sofia pushes her under the water, a part of Katya truly does die. The part that saw her, made her real, has let her go - but more importantly, actively undone her. The ties holding her to this world have snapped, one by one, leaving just a trail of blood in the water and the too-warm muzzle of a pistol to remind anyone that Katya existed, even if it was only in memory. 

At the docks, perhaps she is alive, perhaps she is dead. She watches the seagulls, and they are ephemeral, just like her. They fly through a three dimensional space - but where they fly through the air, she flies through time. She is both more alive than she’s ever been: finally the things that held her back to this world of violence despite being the only things that truly saw her as real (Sofia) are gone. They’ve let her go. And she’s free and it’s devastating. 

So really, whether Katya lived or died isn’t a question of life or death - it’s a question of freedom. And whether it would be Katya’s undoing or rebirth.