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Library Journal Review

Reading this splendid collection of 16 short stories is a very entertaining way to gain good understanding of Soviet life in the 1980s. Published within the last few years and selected by Novy Mir editor Sergei Zalygin so as to reflect literary talent from various regions of the USSR, the stories range from straightforward depictions of ordinary people's lives to a sophisticated piece by Andrei Bitov about time travel to Pushkin's era. Irina Grekova exposes intrigues in academia, Bulat Okudzhava portrays a Stalinist country bumpkin, Valentin Rasputin writes lyrically about Lake Baikal, and other, lesser-known authors provide lingering insights into human minds and emotions. It is obvious from this sample that recent Soviet fiction has great vitality and high artistic standards. Essential for all fiction collections.-- Ulla Sweedler, Univ. of California Lib., La Jolla (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Although billed by the publisher as the ``literary voice of glasnost,'' this collection of 16 short stories by main-stream writers harkens back to the literary themes of the 19th and early 20th centuries more than it explores new styles of fiction. In ``Pushkin's Photograph,'' the immensely talented Andrei Bitov spins a complicated, experimental narrative about a time-traveller who goes into the past to meet Pushkin. The Azerbaijani writer and critic Elchin deftly describes the dynamics of a Muslim family in ``Auto Accident in Paris.'' Georgian writer Bulat Okdzhava's ``The Art of Needles and Sins'' recounts the great length a small village schoolmaster goes to in the economically bleak 1950s to acquire a leather coat and a veneer of respectability. A disappointment is Valentin Rasputin's reflective, but not particularly original ``What Should I Tell the Crow?'' in which the narrator's relationships to his family, nature and, finally, God are revealed like ripples in a pond. The quality of the translations is uneven, but the top-notch and even-handed selection by Zalygin, editor of the literary journal, Novy Mir , makes this collection valuable both as reference guide and anthology. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved