Volume 28, Number 4 · March 19, 1981
Laughter in the Dark
By Clive James
The Radiant Future
by Alexander Zinoviev, translated by Gordon Clough
Random House, 287 pp., $13.95
Sans Illusions
by Alexander Zinoviev, translated by Wladimir Berelowitch
L'Age d'Homme, Lausanne, 150 pp., 36.50 francs
Though it deserved all the praise it got, The Yawning Heights was nevertheless of a size bound to tell against its long-term fortune. Its successor, The Radiant Future, treats the same themes at about half the length. It would be nice to think that Zinoviev had now, after recovering from the initial impact of leaving the Soviet Union for the West, struck his true sense of proportion. Telling against this wish, however, is the awkward fact that we have not yet even got to the end of what he produced before being expelled from the Soviet Union, and the further fact that from his mighty output there are at least two more behemoths on the way.
Review, 3073 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |