Review: White Rainbow and Other Romantic Tales: Translator Mark Scott

Author: Konstantin Paustovsky, Translated by Mark Scott

Publishers: Edwin Mellen Press

ISBN: 0773460446

 (To be released in late fall 2005)

The following review of an ARC copy of the book was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN: Editor of Bookpleasures &CLICK TO VIEW Norm Goldman's Reviews

To read Norm's Interview With Mark Scott CLICK HERE  

Surely no one would dispute that Pushkin and Chekov are two of the most popular Russian authors. However, how many of us in the West have ever heard of Konstantin Paustovsky?

Certainly, not many, and candidly, I must confess, I was among the ignorant, until I had received a collection of Paustovsky’s short stories from Mark Scott, who translated, for the first time, seventeen of these delicious tales.

Scott’s translations will shortly be released under the title, White Rainbow and Other Romantic Tales, and according to Scott, Russian literary specialists in the West generally consider Paustovsky a second-rate Russian writer.

Yet, in the early 1960s, the Soviet newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda conducted a poll and asked its readers to list their favorite authors. Not surprisingly, the majority ranked Pushkin number one.  In second place was Paustovsky, who even today continues to be quite popular, as evidenced by a collection of his short stories published in Moscow in 2003.

Scott’s White Rainbow and Other Romantic Tales are, for the most part, chronologically arranged, covering the period from 1927 to 1966. The collection consists of seventeen translated tales of this popular Russian author, which are preceded by the translator’s comprehensive and insightful introduction.

Bear in mind that introductions to short story collections are often deceptive, leaving readers disillusioned as to what is to follow. Perhaps, there is too much charting of a terrain that would be better off untouched, until the reader reaches the end.

However, Scott’s introduction to White Rainbow and Other Romantic Tales brilliantly maps out what we can expect from a writer, who was, on the whole, as Scott points out, apolitical, and whose themes were quite varied-love, spirituality, ecology, war, aging, and many more.

Moreover, notwithstanding the brutality Paustovsky witnessed during his lifetime, he nevertheless looked at his surroundings through the eyes of a romantic. In fact, there is a kind of poetic quality to Paustovsky’s writing, as if in fact we were reading poems, rather than short stories. They are laconic, image-rich and introspective, seducing readers to re-read passages in order to savor their beauty and wisdom.

We catch a vivid glimpse of Paustovsky the romantic in “Snow,” wherein Tatyana Petrovna occupies the home of a deceased Russian, after she was forced to leave Moscow during the Second World War. In due course, Tatayana welcomes to her home Potapov, the deceased’s man son, who had been unaware of the passing away of his father until he arrived at the train station.

Potapov has the feeling that he has met Tatayana somewhere before. After his departure, Potapov reminds himself that it was in Crimea in 1927 where they had met, and he writes to Tatayana of his findings and his romantic feelings towards her.

To this Tatayana says: “My God! I’ve never been to the Crimea in my life! Never! But is this really important now? Would there be any sense in making him see it’s a delusion. Would there be any sense in making me see it?”

We also notice in Paustovsky a profound sensitivity towards his fellow man, particularly Russian Jews, during an era where anti-Semitism was rampant and even tolerated.

This is particularly in evidence with "Labels for Grocery Goods" and "The English Razor." The former depicting a longing for Palestine and the latter a raw tale of the brutality and cruelty that Russian Jews suffered during the Second World War.

In both of these short stories we can detect the author’s keen ear attuned to the rhythms of speech and his marvelous eye for details.

White Rainbow and Other Romantic Tales is a sheer delight and Scott’s translations have masterfully captured the nuances, subtleties, themes and romanticism of Paustovsky’s writings.

In fact, the more I pondered over the gripping stories, the more they seemed to stick to me.

English readers will certainly find much to enjoy here.