Review by Choice Review
The fact that a particular book is unlikely to reach more than a small, highly specialized audience is a consideration that perhaps understandably dominates the thought processes of most scholarly presses but ultimately says very little about the inherent quality or value of that book. Despite the detailed, engaging portrait that Leach (independent scholar) paints of an influential early Soviet writer and artist who collaborated with some of the most notable cultural figures of his time (e.g., Eisenstein, Mayakovsky, Brecht, Meyerhold, Benjamin), this biography seems destined to find readers exclusively among those deeply conversant with the comparatively esoteric realm of the modernist avant-garde in Russia and Germany. For such readers, however, Leach's book will be a welcome expansion and wider contextualization of the work of such precursors as Elizabeth Papazian's Manufacturing Truth (CH, Apr'09, 46-4318) and Irina Gutkin's essay in Creating Life, ed. by Irina Paperno and Joan Delaney Grossman (CH, Dec'94, 32-2025), each of which offers a focused assessment of Tretyakov's contributions to early Soviet art and culture. Leach's nearly unrivaled expertise in early Soviet theater fully informs his thorough review of a remarkable--and sadly overlooked--creative mind. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. --Derek C. Maus, State University of New York at Potsdam
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review