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Amazon.com
In a brief poem written in response to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia， W.H. Auden ridiculed the inexpressive nature of tyranny and tyrants: ’One prize is beyond his reach， / The Ogre cannot master Speech.’ Now， it seems， the translator and novelist Richard Lourie has set out to prove Auden wrong. In The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin， he lets that chuckling despot tell his own story， from his obscure origins in the Georgian sticks to his bureaucratic apotheosis as ruler of all Russia. In part Stalin simply wants to get his life down on paper. But as he informs the reader， he’s also trying to launch a preemptive strike against his arch-nemesis， Leon Trotsky， who’s currently compiling a scurrilous (i.e.， fundamentally accurate) biography of Stalin in Mexico City. Given this scenario， many a novelist would have turned Uncle Joe into an articulate monster， a kind of Bolshevik Iago. Lourie takes a different route. Oh， his narrator does have a gift for poetic doublespeak， which comes into play during his ruminations on the 1938 Moscow show trials: ’In a certain highly literal sense of the word， most of these men are not guilty of most of these crimes. They may， however， be guilty of many other crimes， crimes for which the state has decided to spare itself the expenses of a trial but which would have cost them their head in any case.’ He also gets off some memorable character sketches， like this one of Lenin: He was five feet three at most but so solidly planted on the floor that he made you feel the smaller man. As the Hungarians say， his forehead reached to his ass， but his baldness was dynamic， not pathetic--as if intense thought had sent the hairs flying from his scalp. He wore a three-piece suit and had the lawyer’s habit of hooking his thumbs inside his vest. Still， Lourie’s Stalin is very much a meat-and-potatoes stylist--perhaps blood-and-guts would be the more appropriate epithet， considering the number of corpses he leaves in his wake. His raw efficiency as a narrator does have its black-comic charms， however， and his race to the biographical finish with Trotsky gives the book a powerful momentum. (Students of history will recall that the narrator’s rival was brutally cut off in mid-sentence.) And what would be the moral of Stalin’s story， at least in Lourie’s version? There are two， which should surprise nobody: Always watch your back and It’s lonely at the top. --James Marcus
From Publishers Weekly
Chilling and mesmerizing， Louries novel traces the Russian dictators life from childhood to the apex of his career， exploring the diabolical nuances of Stalins psychology. The USSR dictator narrates， in a grim and relentless voice， often referring to himself in the third person (Stalin needs peace for terror). His first words， Leon Trotsky is trying to kill me， reveal the fury and incipient dementia of his reaction to the news that his nemesis Trotsky， whom he has driven into exile in Mexico， is writing a biography of his former revolutionist comrade. Indignantly comparing Trotskys libelous biography to his own egotistical version， and ostensibly refuting Trotskys account， Stalin reveals the origins of his criminal mind and the extent to which he has indulged his murderous instincts. From the beatings he suffered at his fathers hands， Stalin learned the perverse power and effectiveness of psychological detachment and physical cruelty. From Darwin he ecstatically gleans that there is no God， therefore no judgment from above. Lourie juxtaposes Trotskys deeply intellectual analysis of Stalin with Stalins own earthy account， which is Machiavellian conviction sieved through the mindset of a thug， less a matter of dialectics than of bullying. Stalin uses bank robbery to finance the Bolsheviks; in prison， his friends are criminals， not the intellectuals he despises. Lourie (First Loyalty) plausibly speculates on key events in Stalins life， combining known history with well-researched probabilities， grounding the book in the actualities of this terrifying era while illuminating the unfathomable darkness of the mind that created it. Stalin realizes that Trotsky is on the heels of discovering his big secretthe one assassination Stalin has systematically concealedwhich sealed the fate of his reign and of countless traitors at the hands of the brutal new leader. Of course he acts to silence Trotsky， and to change the course of history. This nightmarish glimpse into a monsters mind is confidently and frighteningly realistic， appalling and irresistible at once.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information， Inc. --このテキストは、 ハードカバー 版に関連付けられています。

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