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ajkhn's review against another edition
4.0
Finally got around to reading Babel, this translation is the one my library had. It feels very mid-century, so I dunno how accurate it is. Babel's words didn't Leap Off The Page or anything at me. Trilling's weird introduction, with "Babel had the face every Jew would want their son to have" is something I'm going to have indigestion with for a while.
That all said, there's a reason Babel is so famed, and a lot of these stories are genuinely wonderful. It's not his fault, I suppose, that Red Cavalry and Benya Krik went on to inspire all sorts of schlocky stuff. The stories are vivid glimpses into a point in time and should be treated as such. Not Babel's fault that every third post-Soviet kid tried to turn them into their own Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrells.
I really loved the smaller and more sensitive stories in here, Di Grasso chief among them. There's something so un-heroic about Babel that the heroism of the big stories is funny - which, I guess, is part of the charm. But when he is just a small-time storyteller he really shines, I think.
That all said, there's a reason Babel is so famed, and a lot of these stories are genuinely wonderful. It's not his fault, I suppose, that Red Cavalry and Benya Krik went on to inspire all sorts of schlocky stuff. The stories are vivid glimpses into a point in time and should be treated as such. Not Babel's fault that every third post-Soviet kid tried to turn them into their own Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrells.
I really loved the smaller and more sensitive stories in here, Di Grasso chief among them. There's something so un-heroic about Babel that the heroism of the big stories is funny - which, I guess, is part of the charm. But when he is just a small-time storyteller he really shines, I think.
h1914's review
4.0
"With confused, poet's brains I was digesting the class struggle, when Galin came up to me with his gleaming wall-eyes.
'Galin,' I said, overcome by self-pity and loneliness, 'I'm ill, it's clear that my end has come, Galin, and I'm tired of living in the Cavalry Army...'
'You're a driveller,' Galin replied, and the watch on his thin wrist showed one o'clock in the morning. 'You're a driveller and it's our bad luck to have to put up with you drivellers. The whole Party is wearing aprons that are smeared with blood and shit, we peel the shell from the kernel for you; after a little time has passed you will see that shelled kernel, and then you will take your finger out of your nose and sing the glories of the new life in remarkable prose; but for the moment sit quiet, driveller, and don't whine in our way."
'Galin,' I said, overcome by self-pity and loneliness, 'I'm ill, it's clear that my end has come, Galin, and I'm tired of living in the Cavalry Army...'
'You're a driveller,' Galin replied, and the watch on his thin wrist showed one o'clock in the morning. 'You're a driveller and it's our bad luck to have to put up with you drivellers. The whole Party is wearing aprons that are smeared with blood and shit, we peel the shell from the kernel for you; after a little time has passed you will see that shelled kernel, and then you will take your finger out of your nose and sing the glories of the new life in remarkable prose; but for the moment sit quiet, driveller, and don't whine in our way."
donfoolery's review against another edition
4.0
Unfinished since I bought [book:The Complete Works of Isaac Babel]. I tagged this as being for sale/swap, but took it off since the translations are different and I thought it'd be fun to compare.
thepentheimk's review against another edition
1.0
I love Isaac Babel, and this is no indication of my feelings on him. This is just one of the worst translations I have ever read. My favourite story of his was rendered unrecognizable and flat, and after reading it and suffering through several other shallow interpretations of his beautiful stories, I gave up.
hannahgadbois's review
4.0
"With confused, poet's brains I was digesting the class struggle, when Galin came up to me with his gleaming wall-eyes.
'Galin,' I said, overcome by self-pity and loneliness, 'I'm ill, it's clear that my end has come, Galin, and I'm tired of living in the Cavalry Army...'
'You're a driveller,' Galin replied, and the watch on his thin wrist showed one o'clock in the morning. 'You're a driveller and it's our bad luck to have to put up with you drivellers. The whole Party is wearing aprons that are smeared with blood and shit, we peel the shell from the kernel for you; after a little time has passed you will see that shelled kernel, and then you will take your finger out of your nose and sing the glories of the new life in remarkable prose; but for the moment sit quiet, driveller, and don't whine in our way."
'Galin,' I said, overcome by self-pity and loneliness, 'I'm ill, it's clear that my end has come, Galin, and I'm tired of living in the Cavalry Army...'
'You're a driveller,' Galin replied, and the watch on his thin wrist showed one o'clock in the morning. 'You're a driveller and it's our bad luck to have to put up with you drivellers. The whole Party is wearing aprons that are smeared with blood and shit, we peel the shell from the kernel for you; after a little time has passed you will see that shelled kernel, and then you will take your finger out of your nose and sing the glories of the new life in remarkable prose; but for the moment sit quiet, driveller, and don't whine in our way."
neven's review
3.0
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.
cloudslikethis's review
5.0
So incredible, his writing is beautiful. I didn't read all of them because we only read some for class but I will finish them in the future. I wrote my essay on the red cavalry stories, which are haunting and the descriptions of violence are poetic and repulsive at once.