A review by jasonfurman
Odessa Stories by Isaac Babel

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.