Books in Brief: Explorations in Freedom

Explorations in Freedom, edited by Leopold Tyrmand (Free Press, 442 pp., $8.95). The subtitle of this book is “Prose, Narrative and Poetry from Kultura,” which describes its contents rather more accurately than the title. Some of the pieces do indeed explore freedom (and slavery: both Andrey Sinyavsky and Yuri Daniel are included), but such unexpected delights as Andrzej Bobkowski’s “From the Diary of a Model Airplane Maker” (it reminds me irresistibly of Manning Coles) and Stanislaw Vincenz’ “A Rarity” have in common with the rest of the book only that they were written by exiles—if one considers Sinyavsky and Daniel to be such—and otherwise only that they appeared in Kultura. Or perhaps that is a superficial reaction: there may be a deeper underlying unity not visible at first reading. What is, in any case, visible at first reading is that this is a good book to leave around for a guest or anyone else who may be intrigued by Bobkowski’s American travels, or Vincenz’ Jewish folk-tale, and then continue reading into the damning indictments (for once this is not merely a cliche) of Communist society in the selections further on.

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C. S. Horn

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Explorations in Freedom, edited by Leopold Tyrmand (Free Press, 442 pp., $8.95). The subtitle of this book is “Prose, Narrative and Poetry from Kultura,” which describes its contents rather more accurately than the title. Some of the pieces do indeed explore freedom (and slavery: both Andrey Sinyavsky and Yuri Daniel are included), but such unexpected delights as Andrzej Bobkowski’s “From the Diary of a Model Airplane Maker” (it reminds me irresistibly of Manning Coles) and Stanislaw Vincenz’ “A Rarity” have in common with the rest of the book only that they were written by exiles—if one considers Sinyavsky and Daniel to be such—and otherwise only that they appeared in Kultura. Or perhaps that is a superficial reaction: there may be a deeper underlying unity not visible at first reading. What is, in any case, visible at first reading is that this is a good book to leave around for a guest or anyone else who may be intrigued by Bobkowski’s American travels, or Vincenz’ Jewish folk-tale, and then continue reading into the damning indictments (for once this is not merely a cliche) of Communist society in the selections further on.