Soul: And Other Stories (New York Review Books Classics)
by Andrey Platonov
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Book Summary Information
Author: Andrey PlatonovTranslator: Robert Chandler
Introduction: Robert Chandler
Translator: Olga Meerson
Afterword: John Berger
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-12-04
ISBN: 159017254X
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: NYRB Classics
Book Reviews of Soul: And Other Stories (New York Review Books Classics)
Book Review: A startling blend of lyricism and objectivity, expect the unexpected
Summary: 5 Stars
The back cover description and the Publisher's Weekly paragraphs will give you the main plot lines of the title novella, _Soul_, and the other stories, but I want to say that Platonov is astonishing. How could anyone--in such a short life--have felt and known so much and also had time to master the craft of story-telling? Truly a genius. Platonov loved life so much that he had to write it out, and if he stopped writing, his life would have been too painful. His combination of harsh objectivity and lyricism could be accounted for by, perhaps, considering the mix of pain in his own life. He invested the simplest human act with a sense of wonder. Sitting on a bench waiting for a friend becomes a spiritual moment. A character who hears a cricket chirping as he approaches a friend's door would be sentimental or precious if written by a lesser artist or someone with fewer hard edges than Platonov, or in a setting less deprived than Russia in the 1930s.
While the novella, _Soul_, isn't autobiographical, there is a line about the protagonist, Chagataev, that suggests to me the key to Platonov himself: "He felt as if he belonged to others, as if he were the last possession of those who have no possessions, about to be squandered to no purpose, and he was seized by the greatest, most vital fury of his life" (p. 94).
These stories and the _Soul_ novella are proof that literature transcends ideology and politics at the same time that politics conditions people's lives. Platonov and other writers might have been suppressed by men who wanted to dictate what literary art should be, but writers and readers in comfortable, "democratic" nations are persecuted by a silent enemy: mediocrity. Platonov was a total stranger to the "m" word. He never knew complacency.
While death and disaster seem to condition the intensity of Platonov's work, it is from out of his vision of humanity that his writing comes; he has a way of getting to the human truth of a scene or conversation in just a sentence, with exactly the right words. With every carefully constructed sentence, he trained my senses to the point where I was ready to expect the unexpected. In other words, in every sentence there is a kind of tension that has an undercurrent of doom or despair; every moment I expected the characters to be dealt some horrible blow, or some bitter ending, but inside each character is a kind of heroism that turned everything around. Most surprising, in the final story, "The Return," is a nearly 12-year-old boy whose courage saves his family and brings a spiritual epiphany to his father, a returning war veteran. With real boys like that no one needs magic or special effects.
And, I never knew a story about railway workers could be so gripping, so impossible to put down, until I read Platonov's "Among Plants and Animals." I didn't know a man could write so well about women until "Fro." "The River Potudan" is invested with such weightiness that I could sense the huge body of water flowing.
In closing, I'd like the reader to know that this translation of Andrey Platonov's _Soul and Other Stories_ reminds me again how NYRB has reinvented the paperback, winning me away from the Penguin and the Oxford classic paperbacks (which I collected for years). The book covers are well-chosen, and the typeset and spacing between the lines make an easier reading experience, and each page is visually pleasing. A paperback reading experience does not get better than this. And now this incredible translation by a team of experts led by Robert Chandler! Of course, the Platonov we get is due to these translators, and Chandler wrote a remarkable Introduction on Platonov's life and on the art of translating from the Russian and why a group of translators was necessary. But the unsung heroes are the women and men who (miraculously!) preserved all Platonov's manuscripts until the right translators could be found. What a work for humanity. Bravo!
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