Word: viewpoints
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Such, except for the unsexed hero, is the stuff of rousing historical fiction. Pilgermann is that and several other things as well. In Riddley Walker (1981), his fourth novel, Russell Hoban proved himself a master of the unexpected viewpoint. He imagined life several millenniums after a nuclear holocaust and then invented the debased, fragmented language that survivors might use to rebuild their civilization. This time, Hoban's English is normal, but his speaker-protagonist is not. He introduces himself. "Pilgermann here. I call myself Pilgermann, it's a convenience. What my name was when I was walking around...
...EROFEEV'S narrative is essentially unique--suigeneris from a bottle; the story is told entirely from the viewpoint of a drunken man riding the train from Moscow to the outlying village of Petushki, a paradise of sorts where he will find true love or, at the very least, great sex. But his journey is doomed from the start. Just as in Moscow, he has never seen the Kremlin so he is fated never to view Petushki either...
...This viewpoint implies that Afro-Americans, as they achieve greater parity of political and social status with whites, are somehow less capable of responding to the norms and rules of American politics inclusive pluralism than Jews, Italians, Irish, Poles, Greeks, and other ethnic groups. It is, alas, precisely this attitude toward Blacks that sparked the pathetic pandemonium in Chicago's Democratic party--a pandemonium skewed toward barring Chicago's Blacks from parity of political status with whites, and as such warrants the label "racist". When ethnic-bloc voting seeks to exclude groups from political and social parity it is then...
...Viewpoint ultimately suffers from Arbatov's allure to respect the partisan perceptions of the United States Arbatov's constant--albeit diplomatic--denunciations of U.S. policy are so grating that they reduce the effectiveness of the Soveit's arguments. The U.S. it seems, is always in the wrong, the USSR always in the right. As long as the discussion centers around the arms race and international affairs. Arbatov's line of argument is at least plausible. But when the authors turn to comparative human rights and the drawbacks of the Soviet social system, the Soviet balloon pops...
...book's drawbacks are attributable mostly to ideological posturing; in spite of them The Soviet Viewpoint is without question a valuable addition to the literature on U.S. Soviet relations. For detente to be successful. Americans and Russians must come to a better understanding of each other's positions. Even a peek at what Soviet leaders are thinking increases our comprehension of the USSR. And in some small but useful way, the cause of detente is thereby furthered