Red Cavalry (in The Complete works of Isaac Babel)
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2:00--3:15pm Sun., Oct. 5
Red Cavalry (in The Complete works of Isaac Babel) by Isaac Babel
In 1920, Isaac Babel rode with the Red Cavalry into Eastern Poland as part of Russia's first attempt to spread the glory of Communism throughout Europe. These brief, trenchant short stories, drawn from Babel's observations of that disastrous campaign, are marked by a cool detachment and gift for the arresting phrase: "The orange sun is rolling across the sky like a severed head."
In Babel's wartime world, life continues, uneasily but inexorably: whether it's Lyutov, the young Jewish journalist who cloaks his identity to blend in with the Cossacks, or the pregnant Jewish woman who keeps her father's mangled corpse in her sleeping quarters, hidden under a blanket. ("I want you to tell me where one could find another father like my father in all the world!" she says.) Babel's unsentimental stories remain haunting and strikingly relevant, nearly ninety years after their creation.
ISBN
9780393328240
Publication Date
Fall 10-5-2008
Keywords
Communism, Europe, campaign
Disciplines
History
Recommended Citation
Babel, Isaac, "Red Cavalry (in The Complete works of Isaac Babel)" (2008). Jewish Studies Sunday Book & Discussion Group. 4.
https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/jewishbookgroup/4
