Reviews

Four Russian Short Stories by Nina Berberova, Galina Kuznetsova, Bryan Karetnyk, Yury Felsen, Gaito Gazdanov, Gazdanov & Others

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livvi_05's review

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

tesoe's review

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dark reflective sad tense

httpspuppy's review

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3.5

i really liked one of the stories, the rest were mid ngl

gijs's review against another edition

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4.0

Four short stories, all well written and worth your time. The one that stood out for me was the disturbingly unmoored, terror-filled first story ‘Kunak’, by Galina Kuznetsova.

that_bookworm_guy's review

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

anushareflects's review

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.5

These short stories weren’t necessarily unenjoyable, but I just didn’t find satisfaction from them whatsoever. In this new Penguin Modern, you have four exiled Russian writers - Nina Berberova, Yury Felsen, Gaito Gazdanov and Galina Kuznetsova - all writing about death and crime. These writers have fled their homeland as a result of the 1917 revolutions and subsequent Civil War, which add an extra something to the stories.

I just didn’t really understand what was going on in them. Not because they were difficult to understand, or because I was unable to follow along, but because they were so random. The first story, for example, is about a horse swimming and eventually disappearing in the ocean. Although the background story - people escaping on boats - was interesting, it was only alluded to. I just didn’t get it. Maybe I’m missing the bigger picture? Maybe it because I don’t really understand the context? Either way, I didn’t like it.

With the others, especially the crime ones, I just felt they lacked. As usual, it was probably because of the short story format. I’m yet to find an enjoyable short story that doesn’t feel rushed, ends in an unsatisfactory way or has any development in plot and character. With crime stories (I found this with Coyle’s Sherlock Holmes for example), the length doesn’t allow the writer to fully explore the crime scene and then possible suspects. It needs more room, thus explaining why these stories fell short for me.

I picked this up because I want to read more Russian writers, and I thought this would be a great place to start. It probably is for those of you who enjoy short stories and crime fiction, but I don’t really. I’ll have to read a novel next time, and see if I like it more.