STORY OF A LIFE

Rating:
Summary: The best autobiography I've ever read
Review: I originally found this book buried in the shelves of my high school library (Georgetown Preparatory School, Bethesday, MD, USA). It was already old and had never been checked out. I was immediately drawn by the cover, a photograph of Mr. Paustovsky's face looming out of the shadows. The lined face and weary but piercing eyes commanded me to read it. Within minutes I was drawn inexorably into the early years of an extraordinary life. Because of Mr. Paustovsky I will alway think of plane trees whenever I hear of Kiev, I will always think back to his parent's death when I see a swollen river with an island in its middle trying to resist the surge of water. I've always been fascinated by Russian history but nothing quite evokes the World War/Revolution/Civil War era as well as his memoirs. Bunin, Pasternak, Sholokov, Solzhenitsyn...all are excellent and probably more encompassing than Paustovsky. No one, however, renders that era more personally and more lyrically than he. I never returned the book to the library. When it started to show signs of age and I was afraid it might start to fall apart I ordered it from Amazon even though it was out of print and received a good condition second hand hardback edition after a few months. Now both copies hold place of honor in my library and I will soon reread it and, in doing so, reclaim a little bit of the humanity that the drudgery of daily life wears away from me.

Rating:
Summary: very moving lifestory of a writer in Russia
Review: I read this sequel of books in the dutch translation of Wim Hartog. Part of the enjoyment of these books lie in the beautiful translation. The story is the autobiography of Paustovsky, who later in his life wrote about his earlier life before, during and after the russian revolution. The descriptions of places and persons are wonderful. Also Paustovsky tells a lot about the way he writes and how he views the books he has read. Beside the story of his life Paustovsky wrote a lot of other books. The books so far translated in Dutch are unfortunately less interesting than his lifestory.

Rating:
Summary: Paustovski is a master in describing people and nature
Review: What a great - and relatively unknown - writer Konstantin Paustovski is. I read the first part of this six part autobiography in de second year of my history studies, and it made me decide to switch from American to Russian history. In his books Paustovski proves to be an absolute master in describing people and nature. The characters he portrais are so vidid (and most of the time a bit weird)that the reader has no problem whatsoever in evoking a picture of them in his mind. And the way he paints pictures of nature with words is even more impressive. You can almost smell the flowers, see the trees waving in the wind, or hear the Wolga roar. Furthermore, these books are absolute must-reads for anyone who is interested in the early history of the Soviet Union. They give a great inside to how people percieved this turbulent period. All in all, Paustovski's autibiography is a cracker, wich will change your view on the ordinary things of live. All the people who ever borrowed one of my copies, were addicted the moment the read it and read the whole series afterwards.

If you can lay your hands on a copy (secondhand?), don't hesitate and buy it!