Teddy

by Yuri Kazakov, Joeri Kazakov, Monse Weijers (Translator)

107 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Yuri Pavlovich Kazakov was a Russian author of short stories. He started out as a jazz musician, but turned to publishing his stories in 1952. He attended the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute, graduating in 1958. Kazakov was born to a worker's family in Moscow and grew up in the old Arbat area, which has today been turned into a tourist attraction but in the mid-1900s was the focal point of Russian culture. He emerged as a writer only thanks to the short period in recent Russian history known as "the Thaw", but in the mid-1960s, this period gave way to stagnation in culture and public life. Kazakov produced some of his best stories in the 1970s, which dealt with the merging of two souls, the soul of the newborn and the soul of the poet at the end of his life.

Kazakov died on November 29, 1982 and was buried in Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow.

Reviews

[Max Berendsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twee erg meeslepende verhalen, geschreven vanuit een zeer origineel perspectief. Af en toe kwam de vertaling wat houterig over, maar dit werd meer dan goedgemaakt door de rijk gedetailleerde beschrijvingen. Zonder twijfel een boek dat meer lezers verdient!

[Fransien Vandeweghe · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 *

[Sergey Barsamyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kazakov's "Teddy" is one of the best animal stories for young readers ever written! It is like the gentle and more existential version of London's Call of The Wild, with similar themes of survival and resurchange of prime instincts. Every immigrant can share the of "alien in New York" felt in the journey of a bear who finds himself out of this plate suddenly and has to ditch the old habits and adopt a new lifestyle to survive. Very highly recommended!

[Sergey Barsamyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice story by famous Russian author about a good-hearted circus bear, which becomes a fugitive by an accident and tries to adapt to the wild forest. The story reminds Jack London's "The Call of the Wild" slightly, only this one but it's far shorter and kinder. Togather with Kazakovs another masterpiece - "Arktur - Hunting Dog", it's resolutely reccommended to every young animal-lover.

[Laurette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niet echt een berenverhaal om aan kinderen voor te lezen... rauw, mooi, menselijk en dierlijk.