THE YOUNG RUSSIANS: A Collection of Stories About Them

Stories about some young and not so young Russians, reflecting for tho most part an attitude of laconic self-mockery and surprisingly traditional but honest reactions to male/female relationships: Arkady Arkanov's ""High Jump"" concerns a high school girl whose independence of spirit leads to an undeserved reputation for wildness; ""Stubborn Nadya"" sees her parents and fiance plotting together to alter her career plans; Yuri Kazakov's ""The Blue and the Green"" is a young man's attempt to rationalize away the sting of being rejected by his first love; and Gonik's ""Honeymoon in October"" records a young married couple's first brush with boredom. The entries, all but two translated by Whitney, share a tone of melancholy realism, and, in the aggregate, so many young people preoccupied by career choices and naive in their expectations of others become somewhat trying. Individually, however, there are some Frae moments -- ""Lyrical"" Zhenko finding the joys of intellectual freedom within the security-ringed confines of the tenth lab, Parlor discovering the remains of ""The Green Bird With the Red Head"" which he had believed was a figment of his children's imagination. Worthwhile, and not just for what can he learned about Russian society by reading between the lines.