- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (25 Aug 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140184627
- ISBN-13: 978-0140184624
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 x 1.9 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,166,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
A newly translated collection of stories. His desire to remain faithful to his Jewish roots and yet to be free of them gives Babel a duality of vision, which infuses his work with a powerful energy, from the earliest tales.
About the Author
Isaac Babel died in a Soviet gulag in 1941. Peter Constantine won the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize for his translation of Thomas Mann.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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17 reviews
45 of 47 people found the following review helpful
The excellence of understatement
14 Jan 2001
Format:Paperback
I stumbled across Isaac Babel because of a single line quoted in Paul Johnson's "History of the Jews". And then I was forever hooked.
First, a caveat. Be sure you understand when reading Babel's short stories that you are not reading his autobiography or journal. He did in fact listen to our creative writing teachers; he wrote what he knew. He knew the Russian revolution. He knew the Cossacks. He knew war. He knew living inside and outside the pale. His world jumps off the page because he lived it first.
The stories contain autobiographical material, actively mixed with the yeast of fiction. Use this aspect of his writing to chase rabbits. Follow up this book with his biography or find out more about the Russian revolution. Both of those topics will make more sense after reading his collected stories.
As a writer, I stand in awe of Babel's stingy use of words. Some scenes are so hugely horrible that I would have been tempted to throw in appropriate adverbs and adjectives in an attempt to convince you, my reader, just how hugely horrible it really was. Babel simply tells the story, and you gasp when you are done, horrified when you peak through the keyhole (and I would have blasted a hole in the wall).
When you read Babel, you must be willing to go at the stories with an open mind, not expecting him to flatten the Commies, defend the Jews, or paint the picture the way you want him to. He will not do that, no matter how many times you try to make it so. You will hear no overtones of right or wrong, get no definitive answers about the people on either side of the Russian revolution.
For that, I am most grateful to Isaac Babel. Nothing about our world can be easily distilled into sharp black and white. His stories give us the real world in astounding color.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Contains a Masterpiece
19 Jun 2000
Format:Paperback
The Red Cavalry story sequence is one of the great works of 20th century literature. It is reportedly based on Babel's experience as a Commissar in the Red Army during the post-revolutionary invasion of Poland. Babel's autobiographical narrator reflects profound ambivalence. An urban Jew and intellectual serving with peasant Cossack soldiers whose conduct would have been normative during the 30 Years War, Babel's narrator exemplifies and documents the profound contradictions of the Russian Civil War and revolutionary effort. The stories contain multiple scenes of great power, horror, and punishing irony. Other reviewers, see below, have commented on the unpleasant nature of these stories. These reactions are a tribute to Babel's capacity as a writer. Why should we expect anything pleasant from this subject? This work is intended to be profoundly disturbing. Babel aimed to show clearly some of the horror of his time and did so in a way that no factual chronicler can equal.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Fascinating Book
27 April 2001
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A superbly written insider's look at the Russian revolution. Babel can convey the horrors of war with very few words. I enjoyed the best his sarcastic treatement of the bombastic communist rhetoric in such stories as "Salt" and "Treason" (maybe because I was exposed to it myself at one time).
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