Reviews

Odessa Stories by Isaac Babel

kg_wulf's review against another edition

emotional funny informative fast-paced

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

3.0

nikita_barsukov's review against another edition

5.0

Fantastic short story collection, written in an intricate dialect, now lost; with intense episodes, impressions and characters, juxtaposed on real historical events of Civil war, living experiences inside a Jewish ghetto within a pale of settlement in early-20th-century Russian Empire. As it often happens, audio version is subpar, normal book would be much better medium for it.

steller0707's review against another edition

4.0

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.

mariaklingsheim's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

phoebe912's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

lyndsaybh's review against another edition

5.0

More of a 4.5 but so, so great at evoking a lost time and place. The Story of My Dovecote has to be one of the greatest short stories I've ever read.

kendra_kendra's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

morr_books's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

jasonfurman's review against another edition

4.0

I've always felt and wanted to love Isaac Babel but then always get bogged down in his stories and sketches. This was my first time reading Odessa Stories and I absolutely loved the first several of them which centered around a (fictional) Jewish gangster named Benya Krik and had a real energy and humor with great dialog and a nice nobility among thieves. After the Benya Krik stories the rest were sketches that captured the Odessa of a century ago in a somewhat interesting manner but they were more depictions than short stories with an emotional or psychological insight, a plot, or real development. Still enjoyable but not nearly as thrilling as the first few stories.

ingridwergeland's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

4.5