Customer Reviews

My Childhood (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the 1st past of the trilogy of Maxim Gorky's autobiography. This is a really good and entertaining book, but contains at times morbid and depressing subject material, especially the unbelievable cruelty of some of the characters. There are some light moments though and if you enjoy realism and a brutal peek at what life was like in early 20th century Russian life for poor folks and enjoy Dostoevsky, you will like this book.

I personally think that Gorky belongs at the top of elite Russian writers.

I bought this book on friday and finished it on sunday. It takes you deep into 19th century Russia and the semi-feudal nightmare of Gorky's childhood and it does so with pace and vitality. There are few judgements; about the brutality,horror and poverty inflicted on an intelligent suffering child who became grew up to be great. This is no Hollywood, bad guys get what they deserve happy read this is a true story and it is life. A must for any lover of Russian literature.

This book is by far the best in Gorky's autobiographical trilogy.

I found this to be a fascinating book. I could not imagine a childhood more different from mine than Maxim Gorky's. His was a life of grinding poverty, cruelty and sadness intermingled with the love and goodness of his grandmother. Yet out of the cold ashes a great writer emerged. Remarkable.

The writing is vivid and draws you right into the scene and events.

This is a powerful book. I was still thinking about Maxim's life long after the book was finished and put away.

My professor described Gorky's eye as being a roving camera and that is how I feel...Gorky is always ultra-sensitive to what is going on around him. This is a wonderful book, and Gorky one of the most talented writers in the history of literature. No one I've ever read writes as realistic as he does.

Probably because of his being labeled a "revolutionary writer" of the Russian Communist Revolution -- though his aversion to the mass killings conducted by the Bolsheviks led him to eventually commit suicide -- Maxim Gorky has remained an obscure name to the American readers. Fewer still have read or heard of his autobiographical trilogy: My Childhood, My Apprenticeship and My Universities. Those who haven't read his books have missed out on the classic literary production at its best. Comparable to Dickens's David Copperfield, Gorky's My Childhood is a powerful work of a child's journey in life in the wake of his father's death against the backdrop of the tumultuous 19th century Russia. With depictions so beautifully vivid and forceful, it recounts the touching relationship between the unforgettable grandmother and the child Gorky who is put into custody at his grandparents's home. The image of his multi-faceted grandfather, who can be fiercely brutal and childishly tender will leave an indelible memory to the reader. For an author like Gorky who has received no more than two years of formal education, and whose poverty-stricken childhood formed his life-long compassion for the undog, his My Childhood is imbellished with nostalgic reminiscenes of lower class people whose qualities of integrity and dignity shine through the pages. There are the half-blind Gergory who works at the grandfather's dye factory and who is taunted by his co-workers before finally succumbing to total blindness to become a down and out beggar, the foolhardy and rough captain of the ship who enjoys a good night's reading from Gorky and shares generous tears at the depiction of the death of a national hero in the book, and Gorky's little orphaned friends who live out of garbage cans dreaming of a utopian neverland ... these characters help generate greatest impact upon the readers of today where child poverty is as rampant as the epidemic AIDS. The seemingly hermetic world of the grandparents's house leads us into a panoramic view of humnan conditions and conflicts. The grandmother, being the consumate incarnation of good, beauty and truth, a simple woman who knows how to make people laugh, provokes the reader to reexamine one's own selfish nature. Rarely in literary characterization can we experience in such conviction in the character of the grandmother the genuine beauty of optimism in the direst situations, the honesty in a world of deceit, the unselfishness and total sacrifice around treachery and hatred, and fighting spirit in defense of values and dignity. This book and the other two in the trilogy written a century ago will guarantee an unforgettably cathartic reading. It is every bit as relevent to readers of our age as Internet for Dummies. Well, without enriching ourselves from the past literary treasure, aren't we all going to become dummies!?

I've read Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev and I would assume other Russian authors (I can't recall who at the moment) and, as far as I am concerned, Maxim Gorky ranks right up there with the best of them. I read The Lower Depths earlier this year, liked it, thought it was another good piece of work, but it did not strike me in the same way My Childhood did. I like plays, but seem to connect better with novels, a matter of taste. What did I like about My Childhood? I liked the clarity of description, the simplicity of style, and the darkness, as trite as that may sound. Something about the aforementioned simplicity reminded me of authors like Hemingway, Salinger and Vonnegut. There was something minimalist about My Childhood. The character development was consistent, and one thing I like about Maxim Gorky and Dostoevsky, is that their stories are not about the gentry, nobility, wealthy, affluent and educated (of what I've read of their stuff, at least), but about those that weren't so fortunate, those of the non-Count Vronsky ilk, people that were born, grew up and died in the gutter, not that everyone in My Childhood lived in misery from the time they were born to the time they died, were utter failures and lived in abject poverty from start to finish, but life, on the whole, could have been better. Had they been the children of tsars and princes, things just wouldn't have been the same.

I was gifted Maxim Gorky's Childhood when I was 11 or 12 by a friend of the family and have been carrying it with me over multiple cities and countries for 25 years. As a child, I found it an entertaining read, while giving me glimpses of a deeper world within, a palimpsest almost. However, what shone through the entire piece then, and still does when I read it as an adult is a tribute to the incredible resilience of the human spirit. The book is full of characters and scenarios where an ordinary person survives incredible mis-fortune, grief, personal loss and tragedy without losing his or her spirit.

While this is a book which is enjoyed by adults universally, I would encourage all the fathers and mothers out here to expose their youngsters (I would guess kids entering their teens) to it as well. The conversations are simple and direct as befitting the characters, the author has an incisive mind and a dry sense of humour and the very sensitive topic of death is presented in a natural way, without dramatization or sentimentality. And don't worry, your kids won't become Bolsheviks by reading it, though you might prepare yourself for some entertaining questions.

The finest memoir of chilhood that I have ever read. I never felt like I was reading a translation. Gorky captures the wonder of a remarkable and sensitive soul.

It's probably because of his being labeled as a "revolutionary writer" of the Russian Communist Revolution -- though his aversion to the mass killings conducted by the Communists led him to eventually commit suiside -- Maxim Gorky has been a rather obscure name to the American readers. Fewer even have read or head of his autobiographical trilogy: The Childhood, My Apprenticeship and My Universities. To these people I say you have missed the classic human literary production at its best. Comparable to such classics as Dickens's David Copperfield, Gorky's The Childhood is a powerful work of a child's journey in life in the wake of his father's death against the backdrop of the tumultuous 19th century Russia. With depictions so beautifully vivid and forceful, it recounts the touching relationship between the unforgettable grandmother and the "I" who is put into custody at his grandparents home. The image of his multi-faceted grandfather, who can be brutally fierce and childishly tender at the same time will leave an indelible memory to any reader for the rest of his life. For an author like Gorky who has received no more than two years of formal education, and whose poverty-stricken childhood formed his life-long compassion for the underdog, The Childhood is imbellished with nostalgic reminiscences of lower class people whose qualities of integraty and dignity shine through the pages. There are the half-blind dye factory worker Gregory who finally succumbs to total blindness as a down and out begger, the foolhardy and rough captain on the ship who enjoys a good night's reading from Gorky and shares generous tears at the depiction of death of a national hero, and Gorky's little orphaned friends who live out of garbage cans dreaming of a utopian netherland create greatest impact upon the readers of today where child poverty is as rampant as the epidemic AIDS. The seemingly hermetic world of the grandparents' house leads us into a panoramic view of human conditions and conflicts. The grandmother, being the consumate reincarnation of good, beauty and truth, a simple woman who knows how to make people laugh, provokes the reader to reexamine one's own selfish nature. Rarely in literary characterization can we experience in such conviction in the character of the grandmother the genuine beauty of optimism in the direst situations, the honesty in a world of deceit, the unselfishness and total sacrifice around treachery and hatred, and fighting spirit in defense of values and dignity.
This book and the other two in the trilogy written a century ago will guarantee an unforgettable cathartic reading. It is every bit as relevent to readers of our age as Internet for Dummies. Well, without enriching ourselves from the past treasures, aren't we all going to become dummies!?

Gorky's childhood memories brush a very outspoken picture of `that close-knit, suffocating little world of pain and suffering, where the Russian man of the street used to live.'

It is a world full of brutal violence: husbands beating savagely their wives, severely and intensively flogging of children, gamblers becoming totally destitute, alcoholism, dangerous diseases (smallpox, ulcers) and cruel street games (cock and dog fighting, cat torturing, making fun of drunken beggars). Socially, there is a big chasm between the haves and have-nots: their children cannot play together. The poor cannot feed all their new born babies and expose them.

On the other hand, this bunch of `wild animals' is deeply, but primitively religious. They ask God constantly to forgive their sins.

Despite this barbarous environment, Gorky considers his childhood as `a beehive to which various single obscure people brought the honey of their knowledge and thoughts on life; often their honey was dirty and bitter, but every scrap of knowledge was honey all the same.'

There is also another reason why he put these painful memories on paper: `It is the truth and the truth must be known. The Russian man in the street is sufficiently healthy and young in spirit to overcome the horrors.'

Although he lost his love for his family and was thrown out of their home, he remains highly optimistic for mankind: `Life is always surprising us by the bright, healthy and creative human powers of goodness. It is those powers that awaken our indestructible hope that a better and more human life will once again be reborn.'

Gorky was received with open arms by the communists, but that love story ended in total personal disaster.

This brutal picture of the man in the street should remind us from where we all come from.

Not to be missed.