While sometimes termed a "novel," it is better described as a novelistic travelogue, the diary of a trip to Russia in the 1930s during the rise of the Stalinist government. Despite some contempt for what he witnesses, Cummings's narrator has an effective, occasionally hilarious way of evoking feelings of accord and understanding. As Ezra Pound wrote, Cummings's Soviet Union is laid "out there pellucidly on the page in all its Slavic unfinishedness, in all of its Dostoievskian slobberyness.

The author's diary, May 10-June 14, 1931, recorded during his trip to Russia and Turkey.

Includes chapters on Athapascan, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl, Eskimo and Chukchee. (AB1739).

In a racy new interpretation of the traditional Japanese autobiographical novel, Amy Yamada makes her U.S. debut with a view of American urban life. Her frank portrayals of human relationships have both shocked and earned her respect in Japan, and in Trash--a mix of fantasy and authentic experience--she lives up to her reputation.