Read "Mama, Rimma, and Alla" (page 53) on 1 Mar 2024. The three stars are for that story, not the entire book. ( )

Jammer, maar helaas. Ik heb dit boek niet uitgelezen, na 200 bladzijden had ik het wel gehad. Nochtans heb ik al heel wat “klassieke” Russische auteurs gelezen maar deze “klassieker” kon me echt niet boeien. De verhalen of verhaaltjes hebben soms weinig om het lijf en raken soms kant noch wal. Wat de auteur er mee bedoelde was echt niet altijd duidelijk en op den duur kon het me ook niet veel meer schelen. Ik ben blijven lezen in de hoop dat ik het mis had en de verhalen me toch nog zouden meeslepen maar helaas… na 200 bladzijden was mijn geduld op en het leven is te kort om je te blijven ergeren en/of te vervelen . De literaire critici zullen wel niet akkoord zijn maar ik vond het boek overroepen. Om het in het Westvlaams van mijn moeder te zeggen: ‘’k kon er mijn pap niet mee koken’…. ( )

This was a very interesting, yet elusive, set of short stories. The setting is distant, but we are pulled into it through the details and the characters which reveal the world that Babel was operating in and how it affected, and influenced, their lives. I think it was good to read, and should be read for those interested in short stories, though I wasn't quite sure how to grasp many of the stories nuances and I feel that much of it went over my head. Nevertheless, a challenging and good read.

3 stars. ( )

I don't know if it's the translation, or the way this particular edition is set up, or what, but I just found the stories here a slog—with a few notable exceptions, which I remember enjoying in other anthologies. ( )

This is a collection of stories by Isaac Babel, a 20th century Russian writer who met his death at the hands of Stalin's secret police in 1941. The collection is divided into three segments: an autobiographical series, a series of stories taken from Babel's experience fighting the Polish army in the 1920s, and a third series revolving around a gangster hero in Babel's native Odessa. In the autobiographical series, "The Story of My Dovecot" is an absolutely gut-wrenching description of an anti-semitic pogrom carried out during Babel's youth. The Red Cavalry series is a wonderful tale of the pettiness, misery, humor, and senselessness of warfare. The Odessa stories feature the Jewish gangster, Benya Krik, and the often humorous situations that he and his family get themselves into in Odessa. I think Babel did a great job of conveying to the reader not only the experience of being Jewish in Russia in the early 20th century, but he also did a great job of conveying what it was to be a human being caught in the Stalinist machinery of state. ( )