Review by Choice Review
Although a native of the Abkhazia autonomous part of the Georgian Republic, Fazil Iskander writes his gently satiric stories in Russian. They often present situations that seem simple on the surface but are more profound when one looks past the obvious. The present book is a case in point. It is seemingly a history of the deteriorating relations between two groups: the rabbits and boa constrictors. Below the surface, however, Iskander provides the reader with a humorous indictment of power: how it corrupts those who wield it (the rabbit king and the tsar python); how those who are subjugated to power yearn for freedom but fear to give up the comfort of nonfreedom; how poets and prophets are manipulated and torn between loyalty, privilege, and messianic proclivities. First published in the journal Kontinent in 1980, Rabbits and Boa Constrictors, in Ronald Peterson's translation, is recommended as an example of the diversity of contemporary Soviet literature. Too often the West thinks of Soviet literature as being homogeneous. Iskander shows us in a humorous and thought-provoking manner that this is not the case. -E. Yarwood, Eastern Washington University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
