MISHA AND MASHA By Pearl Binder Each of the eight
stories in this book (Gollancz, 12s. Gd.) is a true account of the life of a Soviet citizen ; their ages range from forty-five to ten, and so we get a picture of the revolution, of the oppression that preceded it, of the fierce suffer-mg that accompanied it, and of the passionate reconstruction since. They are all straightforward people, though not without indi- viduality. Natasha is a woman to whom personal relationships are more important than anything else, Oleg, the film-student, has an artist's sensi- bility a-id vanity, but none of them are introspective or complex. They all find fulfilment and happiness under the Soviet regime, excepting Natasha, who is too wounded by bereavement and an unhappy marriage. The stories are simply -Old, and in every case the Russian baes-ground, the life of the family, village, or city-street, is vivid and living. Miss Binder's very numer- ous drawings of contemporary Russian family-life, shops, street-scenes, work, and play are extremely good, full of vitality and humour, simple and vigor- ous, with a -sympathetic power of making one see the living human quality in her subjects. Only the full- page heads of Natasha, &c., are less godd.
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