CHILDHOOD

A new, vigorous translation of the first installment of Gorky’s three-volume autobiography, first published in 1914.

Hettlinger, who directs international study programs at Georgetown University and translated The Collected Stories of Ivan Bunin (2007), begins with a swift summary of Gorky’s life (1868–1936), from his impoverished childhood (“Dickensian” is far too feeble a term) to his disturbing late-life pro-Soviet positions. (Gorky is a pen name; he was born Aleksey Peshkov.) The first volume of his autobiography is a stunning work—intense, violent, loving, wrenching, funny and frightening. It begins with the little boy viewing the body of his dead father. Soon after, another horrific scene—his mother giving birth on the floor to a little brother who quickly died—and then his father’s burial in the rain. All of this occurs in the first five pages. Gorky eventually moved in with his grandparents. His grandfather was explosively violent (beatings were routine), while his grandmother was more compassionate and protective. The grandmother was also an engaging storyteller, and Gorky distributes throughout the memoir a number of her affecting tales—verbatim. As his boyhood advanced, his living situation deteriorated, with the family moving into a series of increasingly dilapidated lodgings. Nonetheless, the author found himself drawn to a number of boarders and neighbors. Among the first is “Gypsy,” who helped out with their dyeing business, but soon died after doing a heavy-lifting chore for the family. Another boarder they all called “A Fine Business” (one of the man’s default phrases). Though he was a loner, Gorky befriended him, a relationship the family did not tolerate, and they eventually expelled the man from the house. The volume ends with the death of his mother, and the author, 11 years old and homeless, adrift on poverty’s sluggish river.

Gorky’s paragraphs are stark photographs of horror and hope.