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Babel: the Black Sea Bard
The Odessa Review pays tribute to Odessa’s most influential and inspirational literary figure
Isaac Babel’s short story collections, ‘The Odessa Tales’ and ‘Red Cavalry’ remain...
Taking Isaac Babel to Canada
Hip Hop innovator ‘Socalled’ reflects on adapting Babel’s Odessa Tales for Canadian audiences – in Yiddish!
I had first discovered Babel’s writing by accident rummaging...
The Art and Science of Translating Babel
In 1929, the great American literary critic Lionel Trilling read a book “about Soviet regiments of horse operating in Poland” that disturbed him, charged,...
Odessa Conceptualism or “L’Enfant Terrible”
For the Odessa art world, the main event of 2015 was undoubtedly the “l’Enfant Terrible” exhibition which took place in the Kyiv National Ukrainian...
KVN and Odessa: Between Humor and Politics
KVN (Club of the Cheerful and Resourceful) is both a game and a TV show, created for Soviet TV in the middle of the...
Humor in Odessa: Traditions and Modern Times
The Humor Capital
Throughout the former Soviet Union, Odessa is considered the capital of humor. It’s unclear exactly how this came to be, but most...
Are Odessa Officials Ready for Decentralization?
Ukraine prepares to devolve power to regions but questions remain over capabilities of local authorities
When national and local governments fail to meet society’s needs,...
Odessans bring summer as close as possible
Odessa is a summer city, so it comes as no surprise that Odessites tend to struggle through the winter months. Winter 2015-16 was particularly...
Anecdotes
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Rabinovich has an appointment with the doctor:
- Doctor! Can you diagnose me with something else? This disease is too expensive.
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The pies shop assistant in...
