From Three Worlds: New Writing from Ukraine

Since perestroika, the helpful introduction to this collection tells us, the Ukraine emerged not only from Soviet repression, but from a centuries-old suppression of Ukrainian traditions and language. A signal aspect of this new freedom was the rediscovery of the mother tongue. If anything is ``Ukrainian'' in the stories and poems of the 16 youthful writers introduced here, it must be the desire to trample limitations. Also common is a raw, vital expression, one of rough edges and provincial awkwardness, evident in Volodymyr Dibrova's recounting of the consequences of mixing testosterone and alcohol at a wedding. Bohdan Zholdak adroitly skewers moral hypocrisy in ``Seven Temptations''; Valery Shevchuk and Yuri Vynnychuk start with fairy-tale formats and mold X-rated fables; and Konstiantyn Moskalets portrays a bizarre tragedy both poignant and perverse. More subdued is Yuri Andrukhovych's tale of a returned Afghan fighter, suffocating in abjection. The supernatural as spiritual underpins Oleksander Irvanets's tale of love and suicide, and in Yevhen Pashkovsky's tear-jerker, biblical passages susurrate amidst poverty and inhuman cruelty. Lacking support from a national literary tradition, and compelled to break from things Russian, these Ukrainian writers have moved to uncharted diversity by attraction and rebellion in turn. (Nov.)