Isaac BabelAnmeldelser

awful awful awful... that's all i have to say½

slightly better than salt but not by enough! just not good½

this wasn't offensively bad or anything compared to Salt and maybe it was slightly better than My First Goose but compared to literally everything else I've ever read it was trash. I hate Isaac Babel½

Okay so for me at least this one did something kind of interesting with the blurred lines of whether it's more ethical to put somebody out of their misery when they ask you to or refuse to participate in someone else's death directly. I still hate Babel though.

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

Isaak Emmanuilowitsch Babel (1894-1940) war ein russischer Journalist und Schriftsteller. Sein bekanntestes Werk ist der 1926 veröffentlichte Erzählband "Die Reiterarmee". Nach anfänglichen Erfolgen in der jungen Sowjetunion fiel er den stalinistischen Säuberungen zum Opfer und wurde 1940 hingerichtet; 1954 wurde er rehabilitiert.(perlentaucher.de)

Isaak Emmanuilowitsch Babel (1894-1940) war ein russischer Journalist und Schriftsteller. Sein bekanntestes Werk ist der 1926 veröffentlichte Erzählband "Die Reiterarmee". Nach anfänglichen Erfolgen in der jungen Sowjetunion fiel er den stalinistischen Säuberungen zum Opfer und wurde 1940 hingerichtet; 1954 wurde er rehabilitiert.(perlentaucher.de)

Povestirile referitoare la războiul cu Polonia (în Ucraina), sunt interesante și zugrăvesc o lume extrem de reală și uluitor de brutală, realismul de-a dreptul naturalist fiind doar ocazional afectat (negativ) de lirism si patetism (genul penibil, de anii 1790). Cele "civile" ar descrie si ele o lume fascinantă si exotică (mahalaua odesită evreiască) dar sunt mult mai grav afectate de "poetism", devenind deseori efectiv neinteligibile.

Short vignette length pieces plucked from chaotic violence, these are dense and powerful glimpses of life at the nearly starved front of early 20th century war.

This Pushkin Press edition brings together all of Isaac Babel’s stories with an Odessa setting, in a new translation by Boris Dralyuk. Dralyuk also provides a helpful introduction which explains the context of the stories and gives insights into his approach to the translation. We learn, for instance, that at the start of the 20th century Odessa had the largest Jewish settlement after New York and Warsaw, counting around 140,000 Jews. The community had also its seamier underworld, largely based in the area of Moldavanka. This part of the city, which Dralyuk compares to London’s Whitechapel or New York’s Lower East Side, led to the development of what one might call Odessa’s “urban folklore”, peopled by gangsters at once reviled for their violence and revered for their roguish charm and peculiar code of honour.

The first part of this volume of stories is entitled “Gangsters and other Old Odessans” and includes tales inspired by this “urban folklore”. They feature recurring characters – such as Benya “the King” Krik, Froim “the Rook” and Lyubka “the Cossack”. I must confess that I did not find these criminals particularly likeable, nor did I warm to their dubious exploits. Whatever my feelings about his protagonists, however, there’s no denying Isaac Babel’s brilliance as a writer. His style is very particular, alternating dark humour with lyrical passages inspired, according to Dralyuk, by the argot of Odessa. It must have been a particular challenge to capture the flow of the originals in this English translation, but Dralyuk manages to do so effectively by drawing, believe it or not, on the style of American pulp fiction contemporary with Babel's stories.

The gangster tales are complemented by a number of autobiographical works, grouped under the title “Childhood and Youth”. These vignettes reflect Babel’s Odessan upbringing, but they are an imaginative interpretation of his childhood impressions, rather than a memoir. You could call it autobiographical fiction, or fictional autobiography - or, to use a current term, auto-fiction. Three pieces which could not be comfortably placed under either of these two sections are placed in a final part - "Loose Leaves and Apocrypha."

This is a collection to read, both for the quality of its stories and for the snapshot it gives of the Jewish community of Odessa at a particular point in time. Here was a world which would soon change forever.

8479692243

Un día desconocido de 1941, en un campo de concentración de la Unión Soviética donde Josef Stalin había enviado a ``los indeseables´´, intelectuales y artistas que consideraba parásitos de su estado totalitario, Isaac Babel, el afamado cuentista judío de sólo dos volúmenes (cuentos de Odesa y Caballería roja) y un puñado de obras de teatro, guiones cinematográficos y relatos dispersos. Los perpetradores de las infames purgas stalinistas había prometido liquidarlo a como diera lugar, a él y a varios escritores judíos mas incluyendo al asombroso Pinhas Kahanovich, autor de la familia Mashber. La personalidad de Babel, su estilo, su parquedad, eran vistos con malos ojos. De hecho, su mensaje, allende los niveles de ironía y ambigüedad era comprometido por muy pocos. Su sentencia pues es igual a la de aquel personaje kafkiano, Josef K., hallado culpable nadie sabe bien de que o por qué. Y murió como ese egregio traductor de textos que invento Borges, el tal Jaromir Hladík, que habiendo querido tener más tiempo y tranquilidad para consumar su propia obra literaria, rogó a Dios por un milagro, una extensión de tiempo a su existencia, pero por desgracia no la obtuvo porque la realidad es implacable y nadie tiene derecho a la clemencia.

8479692669

My great grandfather and my aunts and uncles all came from Odessa at this time. So great reading these stories that I somehow had never read before.

This Pushkin Press edition brings together all of Isaac Babel’s stories with an Odessa setting, in a new translation by Boris Dralyuk. Dralyuk also provides a helpful introduction which explains the context of the stories and gives insights into his approach to the translation. We learn, for instance, that at the start of the 20th century Odessa had the largest Jewish settlement after New York and Warsaw, counting around 140,000 Jews. The community had also its seamier underworld, largely based in the area of Moldavanka. This part of the city, which Dralyuk compares to London’s Whitechapel or New York’s Lower East Side, led to the development of what one might call Odessa’s “urban folklore”, peopled by gangsters at once reviled for their violence and revered for their roguish charm and peculiar code of honour.

The first part of this volume of stories is entitled “Gangsters and other Old Odessans” and includes tales inspired by this “urban folklore”. They feature recurring characters – such as Benya “the King” Krik, Froim “the Rook” and Lyubka “the Cossack”. I must confess that I did not find these criminals particularly likeable, nor did I warm to their dubious exploits. Whatever my feelings about his protagonists, however, there’s no denying Isaac Babel’s brilliance as a writer. His style is very particular, alternating dark humour with lyrical passages inspired, according to Dralyuk, by the argot of Odessa. It must have been a particular challenge to capture the flow of the originals in this English translation, but Dralyuk manages to do so effectively by drawing, believe it or not, on the style of American pulp fiction contemporary with Babel's stories.

The gangster tales are complemented by a number of autobiographical works, grouped under the title “Childhood and Youth”. These vignettes reflect Babel’s Odessan upbringing, but they are an imaginative interpretation of his childhood impressions, rather than a memoir. You could call it autobiographical fiction, or fictional autobiography - or, to use a current term, auto-fiction. Three pieces which could not be comfortably placed under either of these two sections are placed in a final part - "Loose Leaves and Apocrypha."

This is a collection to read, both for the quality of its stories and for the snapshot it gives of the Jewish community of Odessa at a particular point in time. Here was a world which would soon change forever.

I read this book in Portuguese, and I wondered that the translation was not a good one, therefore the 3 stars

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’….

Interesting, full of energy - hard to keep track of characters though

Tanto al evocar la lenta aniquilación de la pequeña burguesía hebraica, como al revivir los episodios de la guerra ruso-polaca en que tomó parte, Isaak E. Bábel (1894 - 1941) despliega su talento desmitificador para descubrir y volver a evaluar los valores humanos individuales en el engranaje de la Historia. Contrasta así con el ingenuo optimismo de la literatura oficial soviética de su tiempo, y no es de extrañar que, arrestado en 1937, muriese en 1941 ante un pelotón de fusilamiento. Valiéndose de la jerga entre cómica y brutal de los cosacos, nos revela un mundo de ecos y sutiles referencias, de inolvidables escenas y personajes que se iluminan con inesperados vuelos líricos y entonaciones fabulísticas.

Isaak Babel wurde Soldat in Budjonnys Reiterarmee. Er kämpfte gegen die Polen in den Revolutionskriegen. Er beschreibt, was er sah und erlebte. Es sind Szenen aus diesem Kriege. Seine Sprache in dieser Übersetzung gefällt mir. Selbst in den grausamsten Szenen hat sie etwas poetisches. Sollte dem so sein? Er schafft beides, eine Distanz und gleichzeitig Nähe für den, der für die Nähe bereit ist.

Gorki hat Babels Talent erkannt und ihn gefördert. Später geriet Babel ins Netz der „Stalinistischen Säuberungen“; er wurde 1940 hingerichtet, so dass weniges erhalten blieb - schade! Nach Stalins Tod 1954 rehabilitiert. (VIII-20)

Dit zijn duidelijk geen verhaaltjes voor het slapengaan. Babel geeft impressies van de Russisch-Poolse oorlog in 1920, bij het prille begin van de Sovjet-Unie. Hij doet dat (meestal) door de ogen van een intellectueel die meegaat in het gezelschap van grofgebekte en brutale kozakken, altijd al de schrik van de Russische legers. In diverse episodes wordt de gruwelijkheid van de oorlog in de verf gezet, soms via heel directe beschrijvingen van willekeurige slachtingen, soms indirect, maar daarom niet minder doeltreffend. Er zit ook een duidelijke sociale ondertoon in, met tirades tegen landheren, aandoenlijke verhalen van verdrukte kleine mensen en verwijzingen naar Lenin en Trotski.
Maar deze verhalenbundel is niet zomaar documentair-historisch interessant. Af en toe zitten er episodes in die nogal surrealistisch aandoen, en regelmatig wordt ook gefocust op joodse gemeenschappen en figuren, met een dromerige ondertoon. Om maar te zeggen dat dit geen gewone lectuur is. Er zitten zeker korte pareltjes tussen, maar veel te dikwijls naar mijn zin gaat Babel zich te buiten aan exuberante beschrijvingen en een nogal klungelig aandoende stijl, al kan dat ook aan de vertaling liggen. Neen, ik ben niet helemaal mee met de Babel-adoratie.

I don't have too many thoughts about the stories in the Red Cavalry cycle. Isaac Babel doesn't leave much room for interpretation, which makes sense, seeing as this is basically a chronicle of the Polish-Soviet War with a few names changed. As far as what I've read in this genre, Babel stands out, but this style has never been the kind of thing to pique my interest. I struggle to fully appreciate quality prose when it's chopped up into so many different snapshots of war.

My appreciation for the book is also certainly affected by the fact that I didn't read the last 100 pages, which were made up of Babel's diary from 1920. I admit I don't have too many principles, but I feel very uncomfortable with reading someone's personal thoughts that they neither sent to anyone else nor intended to ever publish. I totally get the value of such a source and don't judge anyone for reading it (and I'm fine with Babel's daughter deciding to publish it), but I'm not going to read something if I don't feel like I was ever meant to read it.

If you're looking for conclusions to draw from the book, there's really only one that stands out. Being a Jew in Poland in the first half of the 20th century must've just been the worst. If you find that compelling, check the book out. Other than that, unfortunately, Red Cavalry felt supplemental to me rather than essential.

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.

Babel’, Isaak (1931). Racconti di Odessa (Одесские рассказы. A cura di Rossana Platone). Milano: Rizzoli. 2012. ISBN: 9788858624807. Pagine 133. 4,99€

Se vi affascina questa città leggendaria, porto levantino della grande Russia, ideale polo opposto del porto di Murmansk sull’Artico dove il mare non gela grazie alle estreme propaggini della corrente del golfo, crogiolo di popoli e di lingue, questo è il libro per voi. Si legge d’un fiato.

È il libro che Rumiz si è portato nel suo viaggio raccontato in Trans Europa Express (di cui parleremo).

La lingua di Babel’ è pura poesia. Eccone due esempi:

[…] una polpetta, profumata come un’infanzia felice (pos. 1036)

[…] fremevano, come il lievito col quale fermenta la vendetta (pos. 1423)

The Odessa Stories are a set of tales of life in Old Odessa, giving a glimpse of life in the early 1900s in Russia. The characters are Jews - old men and women, gangsters, and priests - and their neighborhood, Moldavanka. The same characters reappear across several stories. There are parties and jokes, along with trickery and malice, showing the strains changeover from a czarist state to a workers' government.