Collected Stories Of Isaac Babel: Amazon.ca: Isaac Babel, Cynthia Ozick, Nathalie Babel, Peter Constantine: Books

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He is a writer who stabs the mind and the heart and the inner eye with short, savage strokes. -- Richard Bernstein, New York Times

Book Description

Following the historic publication of Norton's The Complete Works of Isaac Babel in the fall of 2001, The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel appears as the most authoritative and complete edition of his fiction ever published in paperback. Babel was best known for his mastery of the short story form—in which he ranks alongside Kafka and Hemingway—but his career was tragically cut short when he was murdered by Stalin's secret police. Edited by his daughter Nathalie Babel and translated by award-winner Peter Constantine, this paperback edition includes the stunning Red Cavalry Stories; The Odessa Tales, featuring the legendary gangster Benya Krik; and the tragic later stories, including "Guy de Maupassant." This will be the standard edition of Babel's stories for years to come.

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10 Reviews

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4.8 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars After Chekhov, Leskov and Bunin there's..., Jan 8 2012

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C. Robert Broerse "Buchlieber - Canada" (Niagara Region) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Collected Stories Of Isaac Babel (Paperback)

After Edgar Allen Poe's Tales, Chekhov's stories, Kafka's nightmares and Borges 'Ficciones', Babel is the next in line when it comes to story reading. And this is the perfect, if not penultimate collection to begin with.

I admit, I was troubled by Babel's approach. I never felt prepared when I began the next story in this collection. His writing is very spare, details are few, nearly hidden and the glimpses we get are so deep and wondrous the reader has to be careful not to speed ahead. Many times it would seem the reader is given no bearings when entering a story, especially in Red Cavalry. It's like being thrown into a dark, unknown room with dim lighting. But this, I realized is his charm. We are already in his world the moment we read one of his stories and from the first line, the reader has to either chose: do you give up and close the book or do you explore the incredible dark room Babel has created.

I prefer the latter. Over time the reader gradually adjusts and accustoms his/herself to where Babel is leading them. The stories are often cruel, sometimes brutal but moreover, I would describe them as blunt and honest. He doesn't try to romanticize his world or lend nobility to ignoble characters, whether foe or supposed hero. In fact, the laws that exist in Babel's world of gangster Odessa and Red Cavalry Poland are far too chaotic and change on a whim.

What endeared me most to Babel and eventually changed my opinion on him (too often I found him enigmatic and difficult to penetrate at first)were his similes. "Blue roads flowed past me like rivulets of milk trickling from many breasts" Italian Sun; "The earth lay like a cat's back, covered with a thick, gleaming coat of grain" The Road To Brody; "...both of us looked upon the world as a meadow in May over which women and horses wander." The Story of a Horse. One of my favourites describes the death of a horse but I would rather curious, eager readers further explore these similes than have me spoil more of Babel's beauty.

Though many readers will find Babel's world dark, I would simply state this is a world that simply is. Babel's world is farther away than we imagine, especially in a culture of neon signs and sterilized corporate restaurant chains and stores. But underneath, there is that wildness and Babel depicts his unkempt men and women by showing them rags and all. His is a world where the last traces of men on horseback could instill fear in others.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Book, April 27 2001

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Frequent Reader (Setauket, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 20th Century Collected Stories Of Isaac Babel (Paperback)

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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5.0 out of 5 stars The excellence of understatement, Jan 14 2001

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"innocents" (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 20th Century Collected Stories Of Isaac Babel (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.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The excellence of understatement
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. Read more

Published on Jan 14 2001 by innocents

5.0 out of 5 stars Staggeringly powerful, beautifully written
The frightfully ugly picture on the cover of this edition (what in the world were the publishers thinking? Read more