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dycook's review against another edition
5.0
This was one of the most surprising things I've read all year. I had never heard of this collection or even Babel until it came up on a class syllabus. These stories are sometimes disturbing, but they are filled with some of the most interesting language I have ever read. There is a very visceral quality to Babel's descriptions that is very poignant.
peter_fischer's review against another edition
2.0
Series of short stories set in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920. Babel writes the most astoundingly inventive and beautiful descriptions of situations and landscapes, including some grotesque horror-of-war scenes. However, the collected short stories don’t really make up one unified and consistent whole. I read the Dralyuk translation, one of several English translations from the original Russian, probably not one of the better ones. Something of the atmosphere about the scenes described is missing. I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure the original Russian is much better. Unfortunately I have no Russian although I once tried to learn it. It took me ages just to memorise the Cyrillic alphabet and I gave up pretty soon. It would be great though to read the many terrific Russian writers in the original!
braxwall's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Första världskrigets är slut i väst men pågår alltjämt i öst. Året är 1920 och det Polsk-sovjetiska kriget pågår ännu i Galizien. Berättaren är krigskorrespondenten Ljutyj i röda armén. Berättelsen består av fragmentariska iakttagelser som är både vackert formulerade men samtidigt otroligt brutala. Detta är på det hela en mycket skicklig gestaltning och en bitvis fantastisk läsupplevelse.
gabesteller's review against another edition
5.0
I heard on a Podcast that Denis Johnson claimed he’d been ripping this off when when he wrote Jesus’s Son, and I can definitely see the inspiration. The stories in both are short, featuring deep depravity, violence, silly and absurd humor, a constant feeling of the ground shifting under you, and then sudden bits of total vividness and poetry.
In a way it is kinda jesus son but with war instead of heroin and pills. Or maybe Johnson mixed with Cormac McCarthy except it came before both.
Some really wonderful lines throughout i wish I’d underlined more so some of these favorite quotes are from the author of the introduction:
“The orange sun is rolling across the sky like a severed head”
“Let’s go die for a pickle and world revolution!
“The Moon hung in the sky like a cheap earring”
“His long legs looked like two girls shoved up to their shoulders into riding boots
“Night, pierced by flashes of the cannonade, is stooping over the dying man”
“The song drifted like smoke. We rode toward the sunset, its boiling rivers pouring over the embroidered napkins of the peasants fields The silence turned rosy. The earth lay like a cats back. covered with the thick gleaming coat of grain… a light battery came riding up the hill. Bullets unfurled like string along the road.”
An interesting note through line is that how much the Cossaks interact with the Jewish Community in Poland and Ukraine, and the extent to which they do and don't respect them as people, as well as the fact that Babel himself is jewish tho he hides this from the Cossaks. Babel’s himself (or his fictionalized versions of himself) seems to feel alternatively kinship, revulsion, and a a vague ambivalence or distance from the Fellow Jewish people he comes across. but this is an entirely an emotional portrait of the experience so nothing particularly conclusive is drawn as it never is in almost any of the stories. Other than war is hell i guess.
Favorites:
Crossing the River Zbrucz, Road to Brody, Tachanka Theory, Prischepa, Salt, Squadron commander Trunov, Zamosc, the Widow, The Rabbi’s son.
In a way it is kinda jesus son but with war instead of heroin and pills. Or maybe Johnson mixed with Cormac McCarthy except it came before both.
Some really wonderful lines throughout i wish I’d underlined more so some of these favorite quotes are from the author of the introduction:
“The orange sun is rolling across the sky like a severed head”
“Let’s go die for a pickle and world revolution!
“The Moon hung in the sky like a cheap earring”
“His long legs looked like two girls shoved up to their shoulders into riding boots
“Night, pierced by flashes of the cannonade, is stooping over the dying man”
“The song drifted like smoke. We rode toward the sunset, its boiling rivers pouring over the embroidered napkins of the peasants fields The silence turned rosy. The earth lay like a cats back. covered with the thick gleaming coat of grain… a light battery came riding up the hill. Bullets unfurled like string along the road.”
An interesting note through line is that how much the Cossaks interact with the Jewish Community in Poland and Ukraine, and the extent to which they do and don't respect them as people, as well as the fact that Babel himself is jewish tho he hides this from the Cossaks. Babel’s himself (or his fictionalized versions of himself) seems to feel alternatively kinship, revulsion, and a a vague ambivalence or distance from the Fellow Jewish people he comes across. but this is an entirely an emotional portrait of the experience so nothing particularly conclusive is drawn as it never is in almost any of the stories. Other than war is hell i guess.
Favorites:
Crossing the River Zbrucz, Road to Brody, Tachanka Theory, Prischepa, Salt, Squadron commander Trunov, Zamosc, the Widow, The Rabbi’s son.
binstonbirchill's review against another edition
2.0
I really need to stop reading short stories. Even when I read ones that seem like they should be right up my alley I still don’t get much out of them. I’m just not a person who enjoys 2-4 page stories, I need more to be interested in them. Not the fault of the author, but rather, the reader.
chairman_squidward's review
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Blood, and War
Moderate: Antisemitism
rvandenboomgaard's review against another edition
5.0
I have rarely encountered such visually evocative literature.
Interesting little book consisting of (fictional?) accounts of the year 1920 during the Polish-Soviet War in the wake of the 1917 October Revolution. Felt very realistic, not sparing the reader the gruesome aspects of war. Might be historically interesting.
Just checked Wikipedia, damn, this man had a life. This book was actually based on his journalistic work, that’s pretty… heavy.
Interesting little book consisting of (fictional?) accounts of the year 1920 during the Polish-Soviet War in the wake of the 1917 October Revolution. Felt very realistic, not sparing the reader the gruesome aspects of war. Might be historically interesting.
Just checked Wikipedia, damn, this man had a life. This book was actually based on his journalistic work, that’s pretty… heavy.
aiddvo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
3.0
This volume was originally included in [b:The Complete Works of Isaac Babel|60409|The Complete Works of Isaac Babel|Isaac Babel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386921538l/60409._SY75_.jpg|836152] (translated by Peter Constantine); this edition includes excerpts of Babel's diary from which the idea for the Red Cavalry cycle was drawn, as well as parts of his preliminary manuscripts. The book was edited by Nathalie Babel, the author's daughter. During my research into the translation, I came across this exchange in an interview with Constantine regarding his translations of Anton Chekhov:
Isaac Babel's emotionally moving prose sticks brutally to one's throat and refuses to be dislodged. These are hardly bedtime stories: at times ruthless, at others merciless, Babel's writing borders on cruelty in its depiction of reality. Although the depiction of the vicious Cossacks, as Babel sketches it out, can be at times harsh, the overall result is a nuanced, heartbreaking picture of them and their unfortunate situation.
DG: A huge part of translation is the creative aspect of rewriting someone’s work into a new language, but a translator can also be an academic and biographer. How did you fill these three roles as you translated Chekhov’s earlier and lesser-known works?
PC: The only role I filled in my Chekhov translations was that of the translator.That's what I like to see.
Isaac Babel's emotionally moving prose sticks brutally to one's throat and refuses to be dislodged. These are hardly bedtime stories: at times ruthless, at others merciless, Babel's writing borders on cruelty in its depiction of reality. Although the depiction of the vicious Cossacks, as Babel sketches it out, can be at times harsh, the overall result is a nuanced, heartbreaking picture of them and their unfortunate situation.