INSIDE RUSSIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26692, 11 February 1948, Page 2

INSIDE RUSSIA

FACTS IN FICTION A Room on the Route. By Godfrey Blunden. Jonathan Cape, and The Australasian Publishing Co., Pty., Ltd. 12s 6d. This is a strong and mature novel by a well-known Australian foreign correspondent. It is particularly interesting at the present juncture, since it gives a first-hand picture of life in Russia during the war by a trained eye-witness. The characters are, of course, fictional, but there can be little doubt that the picture drawn is as true as such a picture can be. Mr Blunden tells his story by a series of soliloquies by the various narrators, a young American diplomat, and a number of Russians of various political colours. It is cleverly done and the various points of view blend to form a coherent and vivid picture of life in circumstances and surroundings which citizens of this country will find appalling in every way. Russia is not a nice place in which to live, nor are the Russian authorities nice people to know. The old idea of the amiable and dreamy Russian finds no credence here. Mr Blunden’s Russia is a savage and primitive place where a barbarous and brutal police not only terrorise their own people but torture and kill their own predecessors as they fall out of favour or are found to know too much. The impression left by the book is that Russia is not only completely isolated from our way of life and our climate of ideas, but is likely to remain so, and that from such a people we can expect in the future neither co-opera-tion nor understanding. Apart from its political content it is an extremely absorbing novel with a well-told and exciting story. It can be recommended to anyone who is prepared to stomach a little strong meat in his reading. Its characterisation is skilful and consistent and its structure could 'hardly be improved. A workmanlike job in every way. P.H.W.N.