Salt

by Isaac Babel

10 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Isaak Emmanuilovich Babel (Russian: Исаак Эммануилович Бабель; 1894 - 1940) was a Russian language journalist, playwright, literary translator, and short story writer. He is best known as the author of Red Cavalry, Story of my Dovecote and Tales of Odessa, all of which are considered masterpieces of Russian literature. Babel has also been acclaimed as "the greatest prose writer of Russian Jewry."

Loyal to, but not uncritical of, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Isaak Babel fell victim to Joseph Stalin's Great Purge due to his longterm affair with the wife of NKVD chief Nikolai Yezhov. Babel was arrested by the NKVD at Peredelkino on the night of May 15, 1939. After "confessing", under torture, to being a Trotskyist terrorist and foreign spy, Babel was shot on January 27, 1940. The arrest and execution of Isaak Babel has been labeled a catastrophe for the world of literature.

Reviews

[Adina ( catching up..very slowly) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in Found in Translation Anthology

Isaac Babel was a well known Jewish Russian author loyal to the Communist cause. This very short story is using irony to pinpoint the horrors of the war.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

A horrific short story. I was led to it by R.B. Kitaj’s painting, ’Isaac Babel riding with Budyonny’ and Elaine Feinstein’s poem of the same name which is based on the art work. All succinctly describe the horrors of the Polish-Soviet war of 1920, the aftermath of the civil war, and the brutality of war generally.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Salt by Isaac Babel is one of the short stories from the Red Cavalry collection, placed on the 522nd spot by the algorithm of The Greatest Books of All Time site, since it takes new data in, changes in the public and critics taste (perhaps), this place could and will change, as for the taste of the hoi polloi, well, they know of The Da Vinci Code, but many fewer have heard of Nineteen Eighty Four – which is sixth on the same GOAT site -nevertheless, you find more than five thousand reviews of books from the aforementioned site and others, plus notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other places on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... a visit would be welcome



9 out of 10

The Stories included in the Red Cavalry are astounding https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... in themselves, and they have a special significance because they are about the war between the then Soviet Union and Poland – or was it before the USSR was born, no matter – and we could see this repeating, only this time it would be NATO versus Russia, the latter is really pushing for it

Isaac Babel was called "the greatest prose writer of Russian Jewry" and we can see why, we are aghast at what we read, let me share here some of the scenes that have been especially horrendous for me, starting with the old man, who was Jewish – just like Babel, who was a communist, shot dead after his arrest and torture
https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... the victim tries to convince his tormentors to kill him outside, he knows there is no mercy, he will be dead soon, but at least they should spare his daughter the terror of seeing her parent die in front of her, but they say no, and do it where they want

I will jump from this to the present, where I am appalled by Orange Woland – anybody who has read some of my lines will be familiar with the leit motif, but then who reads this anyway, there is real magnum opera out there, why bother with this? -and every single day there is something so abominable, sometimes a few things
This awful individual https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is monstrous and ludicrous: the latest thing is gathering generals (a security nightmare) to tell them he wants to extend this war on…America, ‘the enemy within’, aka those who disagree with him, Chicago, New York

The crime rate is higher in some places controlled by the MAGA cult, but this is about crushing opposition, theater, vengeance, not justice, or reality – he has ordered the indictment of Comey, the former FBI director, incidentally, this fella helped the orange buffoon when he insisted on the Hilary Clinton emails
But better to return, at least for some lines to Salt and the stories of Isaac Babel: another Jewish man is killed with a knife – indeed, many die, this is a war, animals suffer a lot and I was very unhappy with the death of the goose https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...

Then there is the plight of this fighter, who is mortally wounded, his intestines and probably other things are hanging out of his belly, and he is also concerned, the word should be terrified that the Poles will torture him even more, if they find him alive – interesting to see how I consider the Russian as evil, with the full knowledge that you can’t classify a whole group, you have good and bad when more than twenty people are together, but they seem to agree with this Putin, a majority, Russian the killings – so the fallen man wants a comrade to kill him, before the enemy would get him, the first mate does not do it, so another has to take mercy, or feel compassion https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

[Timothy Coplin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tragically beautiful.