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A review by alismcg
Red Cavalry by Nathalie Babel, Isaac Babel
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Isaac Babel rode with the Cossacks—under the Bolsheviks in 1920— as a war correspondent in the Campaign against Poland. “Red Cavalry” — its stories and writer’s diary— contains what he carried back with him when he returned 6 months later.
He disappeared in 1939 after the Bolsheviks paid him a visit. They put a hole in the back of his head and tossed him into a communal grave. And they buried every sign of him. But his voice will not be quiet.
And how he ‘sees’ things ; the flash of images blind the reader with intensity and leave the after-image behind.
“The orange sun is rolling across the sky like a severed head.”
“Everything has been killed by the silence, and only the moon, clasping its round, shining, carefree head in its blue hands, loiters beneath my window.”
“The silence of the sunset turned the grass around the castle blue. The moon rose green as a lizard above the pond.”
“The evening wrapped me in the soothing dampness of her twilight sheets, the evening placed her motherly palms on my burning brow.”
Beautiful prose. I will be searching the stacks for more of him.
He disappeared in 1939 after the Bolsheviks paid him a visit. They put a hole in the back of his head and tossed him into a communal grave. And they buried every sign of him. But his voice will not be quiet.
And how he ‘sees’ things ; the flash of images blind the reader with intensity and leave the after-image behind.
“The orange sun is rolling across the sky like a severed head.”
“Everything has been killed by the silence, and only the moon, clasping its round, shining, carefree head in its blue hands, loiters beneath my window.”
“The silence of the sunset turned the grass around the castle blue. The moon rose green as a lizard above the pond.”
“The evening wrapped me in the soothing dampness of her twilight sheets, the evening placed her motherly palms on my burning brow.”
Beautiful prose. I will be searching the stacks for more of him.