VARIETY
St. Bernards." For the first thirty
or forty pages, Henry's sexual
powers and activities are flung
vigorously at the reader, but after
that, Tarzan beats a slow retreat.
He stop bragging, becomes notice–
ably reticent about his carryings on.
Sex continues as a comic device,
but it is generally other people's
sex, not Henry's. Finally, it more or
less disappears altogether, returning
only toward the end for a couple of
poetical-mystical curj:ain calls. Most
of the last third of the book con–
cerns loveless life at a provincial
school and how Henry helps an
American friend escape from the
clutches of a Frenchwoman. Like
his sex, Henry's character too
undergoes a purification by milk.
The super-duper rabelaisian he–
man of the early pages dwindles
and vanishes in favor of a quite
sweet, boyishly amiable fellow,
rather like Isherwood's Isherwood.
Henry stops bumming and bilging
off friends. To our dismay, the
heroic vagabond poet has given up
screwing and taken a job. Or even
two jobs. What does Miller mean
by this? Why the initial sexual
violence and the later seeping
away?
Like Lawrence and Joyce, Miller
is a Victorian. His attitude toward
sex-my apologies to Shapiro-is
not an easy ora natural one at all
(that about which we feel easy and
natural never demands of us an
attitude); it is the attitude of a
revolutionary, of the man who has
"For English–
speaking readers,
this collection
is perhaps ,the
richest source of
Soviet literature
yet made available."
619
-NEW STATESMAN
DISSONANT
VOICES IN
SOVIET
LITERATURE
Edited
by
PATRICIA BLAKE
and MAX HAYWARD
More than 100 pages of new
material have been added to
the controversial collection
which first appeared as a
special issue of
Partisan Re–
view.
Ranging from Tendrya–
kov's already-famous "Three,
Seven, ,Ace"-translated here
for the first time-to a shock–
ing satire, "This Is Moscow
Speaking," by the pseudony–
mous Nikolai Arzak, the ad–
ditions include work by such
post-Thaw authors as Chukov–
sky, Kharabarov, and Kaza–
kov. This volume of stories,
essays, and poems, represent–
ing three generations of Soviet
authors, shows the other face
of Russian writing since the
Revolution.
PANTHEON
$5.95
