Narrator Richard Poe’s voice blends seamlessly with Steinbeck’s in this account of his travels through Russia with war photographer Robert Capa following WWII. Thanks to Poe’s consistent pace, careful diction, and friendly tone, both longtime Steinbeck fans and new ones will find themselves comfortable with his performance. His subtle emphasis on the more serious aspects of Russian travel nicely balances the humor of certain events, and it might be surprising to some how much humor is to be found in Steinbeck’s travels. The only downside to the audiobook format is the absence of the photographs that appear in the print version, but this is no reflection on Poe’s performance or the value of the audiobook. N.J.B. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Just after the Iron Curtain fell on Eastern Europe, Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Steinbeck and acclaimed war photographer Robert Capa ventured into the Soviet Union to report for the New York Herald Tribune. This rare opportunity took the famous travelers not only to Moscow and Stalingrad - now Volgograd - but through the countryside of the Ukraine and the Caucasus. Hailed by the New York Times as "superb" when it first appeared in 1948, A Russian Journal is the distillation of their journey and remains a remarkable memoir and unique historical document.
What they saw and movingly recorded in words and on film was what Steinbeck called "the great other side there ¿ the private life of the Russian people." Unlike other Western reporting about Russia at the time, A Russian Journal is free of ideological obsessions. Rather, Steinbeck and Capa recorded the grim realities of factory workers, government clerks, and peasants, as they emerged from the rubble of World War II-represented here in Capa's stirring photographs alongside Steinbeck's masterful prose. Through it all, we are given intimate glimpses of two artists at the height of their powers, answering their need to document human struggle. This edition features an introduction by Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw.
Just after the Iron Curtain fell on Eastern Europe, Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Steinbeck and acclaimed war photographer Robert Capa ventured into the Soviet Union to report for the New York Herald Tribune. This rare opportunity took the famous travelers not only to Moscow and Stalingrad - now Volgograd - but through the countryside of the Ukraine and the Caucasus. Hailed by the New York Times as "superb" when it first appeared in 1948, A Russian Journal is the distillation of their journey and remains a remarkable memoir and unique historical document.
What they saw and movingly recorded in words and on film was what Steinbeck called "the great other side there ¿ the private life of the Russian people." Unlike other Western reporting about Russia at the time, A Russian Journal is free of ideological obsessions. Rather, Steinbeck and Capa recorded the grim realities of factory workers, government clerks, and peasants, as they emerged from the rubble of World War II-represented here in Capa's stirring photographs alongside Steinbeck's masterful prose. Through it all, we are given intimate glimpses of two artists at the height of their powers, answering their need to document human struggle. This edition features an introduction by Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw.
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940171876821 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 11/13/2014 |
| Series: | Penguin Audio Classics |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Videos
