Benya Krik, the Gangster and Other Stories

by Isaac Babel, Avrahm Yarmolinsky (Editor, Translator), Bernard G. Guerney (Translator)

Isaac Babel was born in 1894 in that part of Odessa called Moldavanka. A protege and friend of Maxim Gorky, Babel came to prominence in the early 1920's with the publication of Red Cavalry, but as Stalin's repressive regime made the position of the creative writer increasingly difficult during the next decade, Babel published less and less. In 1939, he was arrested, and his papers, which were seized by the police, vanished with him. The charge against him is not known. A certificate delivered to the family shortly after Stalin died gives March 17, 1941, as the data of Babel's death, but mentions neither its cause nor where it had occurred. He was "rehabilitated" in 1954. His complete works were re-issued in Moscow in 1957.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Russia

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Isaak Emmanuilovich Babel (Russian: Исаак Эммануилович Бабель; 1894 - 1940) was a Russian language journalist, playwright, literary translator, and short story writer. He is best known as the author of Red Cavalry, Story of my Dovecote and Tales of Odessa, all of which are considered masterpieces of Russian literature. Babel has also been acclaimed as "the greatest prose writer of Russian Jewry."

Loyal to, but not uncritical of, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Isaak Babel fell victim to Joseph Stalin's Great Purge due to his longterm affair with the wife of NKVD chief Nikolai Yezhov. Babel was arrested by the NKVD at Peredelkino on the night of May 15, 1939. After "confessing", under torture, to being a Trotskyist terrorist and foreign spy, Babel was shot on January 27, 1940. The arrest and execution of Isaak Babel has been labeled a catastrophe for the world of literature.

Reviews

[Will Young]

Brilliant... Babel is just arrestingly smart. The only story of his I knew before this was "You Must Know Everything" from the New Yorker Fiction, now I have really felt that desperation and the fear for one's own life that drives the sharpness and precision in his writing. There is a great but hidden urgency in it. If it makes any sort of sense, I feel like he commands metaphor in a way that only writers who grew up surrounded by war can. Some stories I liked better than others, "The Story of My Dovecot," "The Awakening," and the series of "Gedali / The Rabbi / The Rabbi's Son" all were literally breathtaking. Those five should be read by everyone.

[Animal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read Benya Kirk the gangster.

It is interesting, a bit hard follow, mostly due to my ignorance and the story not being a straight forward narrative. It’s written like a game of telephone. Neighborhood stories about a local legend. Which we’ve all heard in our own hometown, so to some degree you get it, making the life of a Soviet, Jewish, hoodlum, relatable, somewhat.

The writing is simple, but sprinkled with bursts of poetic flair, which makes it really cool.

The author’s story is interesting as well.

People I respect love his work and this peaked my interest enough to check out something else of his.

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

he's no isaac bashevis singer but he's pretty damn good. a blend of classic jewish storytelling with an urban grit (damon runyon x 1900s odessa). babel has a gimlet eye for characters and weird collisions inside life. need to read more of him.