The voice of prose /

In the last four years there has been a renewed interest within the English-speaking world in Pasternak (Boris Pasternak: His Life and Art by Guy de Mallac, CH, Apr '82; Pasternak: A Biography by Ronald Hingley, CH, Apr '84) and his poetry (My Sister-Life, and A Sublime Malady, tr. by Mark Rudman and Bohdan Boychuk, CH, Dec '83; Selected Poems tr. by Jon Stallworthy and Peter France, CH, Mar '84). Now Christopher Barnes has edited and translated a selection of Pasternak's prose works including: ``Safe Conduct,'' ``The Apelles Mark,'' ``Suboctave Story,'' ``Zhenya Luvers Childhood,'' ``Letters from Tula,'' ``Without Love,'' ``Three Dramatic Fragments,'' and ``The Quintessence.'' Several of these works have not been previously translated and several have not been available in English for many years. Pasternak presents an exceptionally difficult challenge for a translator because his language is so poetic, so intricate. Barnes, however, has met this challenge admirably, and his translations are thoroughly accurate and highly readable. Highly recommended for graduate, undergraduate, and public libraries.-E. Yarwood, Eastern Washington University

A very welcome re-compilation of Pasternak prose: not only does it include a novella from 1916-1917, ""Suboctave Story""--never before translated into English; it also offers whole the classic first autobiography Safe Conduct, as well as rarely-to-be-found-nowadays ""The Quintessence"" (sometimes printed under the title ""Some Statements"")--from a 1932 piece that's one of the more important (but less known) documents of international modern poetics. ""Suboctave Story""--left half-finished by Pasternak--is a German-tinged (Kleist, Hoffman) baroque tale about an organist who accidentally crashes his son to death in the organ's coupler mechanism--and who then must deal with his guilt. Pasternak's artistic/musical family background adds a psychoanalytic shading, but the story is more straightforwardly involved in experimenting with themes (more fully developed later) of artistic responsibility and its mysterious grace. Included also are more familiar autobiographical sketches--""Zhenya Luvers' Childhood"" and ""Letters from Tula""--in all making for a valuable volume of the prose of perhaps the most laxly appreciated of the century's greatest writers. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.