A Sky-Blue Life and Selected Stories

by Maxim Gorky

Bio and other stories of Gorky.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

254 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Russian writer Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov (Russian: Алексей Максимович Пешков) supported the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and helped to develop socialist realism as the officially accepted literary aesthetic; his works include The Life of Klim Samgin (1927-1936), an unfinished cycle of novels.

This Soviet author founded the socialist realism literary method and a political activist. People also nominated him five times for the Nobel Prize in literature. From 1906 to 1913 and from 1921 to 1929, he lived abroad, mostly in Capri, Italy; after his return to the Soviet Union, he accepted the cultural policies of the time.

Reviews

[jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a fan of Russian literature, I've been looking forward to reading Gorky, so I hate to report that I'm disappointed by this collection of short stories. Most are about "outcasts" and how they go about their daily lives, so I can catch glimpses of this part of Russia. But at the same time, precisely because these stories are rather mundane that they can easily fail to grab my attention, either because the plots aren’t particularly exciting (in different senses), or because the characters aren’t psychologically interesting. This problem is all the more salient when I've been reading The Double and Everything that Rises Must Converge simultaneously, both of which represent what I love about novels. Perhaps I’ll return to Gorky in the future, but not now — not when I have limited time to read.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The blurb isn't lying on the back. This book is BRUTALITY! From the first story: Makar Chudra to A Sky Blue Life. If women and children are still treated that way in Russia , this book will keep me from visiting. I know it was the time period and even America had similar cruelties. At times we still do, but it's a shame after all these centuries. This book was a lesson in Russian Literature and men. But far too hateful. Ah the dirty greed of money too. I need to go calm myself down with a combo of Gogol and Gloria Steinem. Do excuse me. ...But this book only got two stars. While I know it's historical and things were this way, I can still honestly say, borrowing from Damon Wayans and David A Greer.."Hated it!"

[Agnes]

DNF @ page 69

[Stevo Ilišković]

Голубая жизнь

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first group of stories in this collection come off as dry and bitter stories about the deceptions of love and the world, but the last couple have a great bit of humor to them that I really enjoyed. So, between the two different sets of stories, I suppose this balances into a book I think of more as "okay".

[PhattandyPDX · Rating 3 out of 5]

“We have become so accustomed to these peculiarities that we fail to notice them, and regard them all as in the order of things. And yet we cannot help noticing that, both in our life and in nature, we find the crude and ugly useful, whereas we find useless what is beautiful and enjoyable. “