Thank You net gallery for the advanced copy of this book.
This is a collection of stories from a blind Russian man who lived in Japan and China in the early 1900's. It starts with a summary of his life. It moves on to many of his stories which reflect the politics of the time. Many stories were a bit grim and did not put mankind in a good light. I found this an interesting read.

<I>First, a thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book.</I>

Normally, fairly tales are absolutely my jam. And what an intriguing life and author!

But sadly, I just couldn’t get into these stories. I found my mind wandering and found myself reading the same passages over and over again. It just wasn’t for me.

Interesting take on fairy tales. I think I'd stick with the original Grimm's as my favorite and they are hard to match.

Vasily Eroshenko, a blind Ukrainian writer who wrote in Japanese and Esperanto, who was exiled from Japan, and drifted to China, who led an incredibly fascinating life, is someone I’d never heard of till this week, when this book was released. And such a shame, because his work is as brilliant as his life. This translation, by Adam Kuplowsky, is brilliantly done, and the notes and forwards by both Kuplowsky and Jack Zipes really contextualize Eroshenko’s work.

These fairy tales are truly centred in the tradition (ie. not Disneyfied), but take on unique twists: Eroshenko does not shy from disability or try to cure it, and he explores fairy tales as a vehicle for sharing socialist philosophies - for which he ended up being deported from Japan. These stories are so beautiful, and with additional pieces from Eroshenko’s reflections on his life, and Kuplowsky’s diligent work in translating, this is a haunting must-read.

Vasily Eroshenko’s The Narrow Cage and Other Fairy Tales will introduce most readers to an unfamiliar name and an assortment of his fiction and non-fiction writings.

In the first part of the book, translator Adam Kupowsky summarizes Eroshenko’s life. Born in 1890 Ukraine, Eroshenko was blinded at four by measles and later sent to a school for the blind where he learned many harsh lessons that helped shape his non-conformist thinking and writing. Around 1911, he was introduced to Esperanto, the international language developed by L. L. Zamenhof and espoused as a means toward “brotherhood and justice among all people.” Before long Eroshenko was traveling to England and to Japan where he wrote many of the stories selected for this collection, typically told from the viewpoint of fish, animals, plants, or children endangered by the various powers that be. Despite some success and popularity in Japan, he gradually became regarded as a threat to the establishment, and he was exiled from Japan, eventually ending up in China where he continued writing.

With strong views on hypocrisy, colonialism, capitalism, totalitarianism, and other social and political injustices, Eroshenko couched his views in fables and fairy tales such as “The Sad Little Fish,” “The Death of the Canary,” “For the Sake of Mankind,” “The Narrow Cage,” and “The Tragedy of the Chick.” Eroshenko expressed his sense of international citizenship by advising others to “keep always in your mind that my country is the world, humanity is my nation and my beloved tongue is Esperanto. Remember this thing and you will have the key to all my philosophy in all my writing and speeches.”

One of the writings that interested me most appears toward the back of the book. In it, Eroshenko relates several incidents from his time at Moscow School for the Blind where students were prisoners, not allowed to visit their families even on holidays. Taught blind obedience to the tsar and the nobles, students were expected to sense the difference between a nobleman and a beggar although the students could not see. Any questioning of authority met with harsh reprimands, missed meals, and sometimes physical abuse. It is easy to understand how such childhood experiences taught Eroshenko to doubt everything the teachers or government stood for and to chose to tell his stories through animal and plant life and children, instead.

Thanks to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for an advance reader copy of the long-overlooked writings of Vasily Eroshenko..

4 stars

I am grateful to Columbia University Press for sending me an advanced copy of this book for review.

The first thing you should know is that this book has two very distinct parts . A huge chunk of pages is taken up by a biography of the author. The author was a blind man who lived in multiple countries throughout his life, wrote in multiple languages, and was highly involved with politics/political movements. This description alone should clarify that his biography is not boring at all . It was also nice to understand the author before engaging with his stories, because it was very clear what inspired each story and what statements he was trying to make.

The second portion of the book is the actual short story collection . The stories are highly political and deeply philosophical, while still being accessible and engaging. Due to the political environment that inspired his writing, the stories are generally very dark . This is an interesting contrast with his choices in giving many of them a fable-like structure and populating many of the stories with anthropomorphized animal characters. His political views and his personal experiences (which we learn about in the biography) are woven into every fiber of these stories though, so I can see this being tiring or even off-putting to some readers.

I enjoyed this collection, and recommend it to fans of short story collections, history, politics, and cultural stories.

I found this collection of folk tales, written between 1915 and 1923 by the blind Russian-Ukrainian poet and socialist Vasily Eroshenko, completely bewitching. The stories are haunting and beautiful, translated deftly from Japanese and Esperanto by Adam Kuplowsky. Themes include domination and power, captivity and freedom, and the oppressiveness of the church. The non-human characters illustrate Eroshenko’s egalitarian worldview and add to the surreal atmosphere of the stories. The stories themselves are wonderful, and the bits we learn about Eroshenko’s life are just as captivating.

This was interesting! I honestly found the introduction/forward super compelling, and without reading that, the profoundness of the fairy tales doesn't pack as hard of a punch.

(3/5) While I liked this book, I ended up not finishing it. This is a very niche reference, but if you were in IB in high school and you read Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges and really loved it, this book would be great for you. Eroshenko is a Russian/Ukrainian who spent years of his life in Japan and China, and these tales are ones that he wrote during those years. The curated collection is split into two sections - Japanese tales and Chinese tales. Adam Kuplowsky, who curated and translated the work, writes of the selected works that they were chosen:
"with particular emphasis given to tales in which he employed subversive techniques and experimental prose styles to provoke and raise the political consciousness of his readers. Each tale has been selected for the various social and political injustices they highlight, the experimental techniques they exhibit, and the value they have as a biographical or historical commentary."

Thank you to Netgalley and Columbia University Press for providing me with an eARC of this story collection, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I had never heard of Eroshenko before picking up this book, but he is a very unique and interesting figure that seems to have been mostly forgotten to time by many. His "fairy tales" are creations of his lived experiences around religion, politics, and his disability. The whole collection is interesting and I think that some new readers will gladly pick apart each story for little tidbits of references and information. I already know that I didn't pick up on everything, but I generally enjoyed all of the stories.

One of my favorite aspects, is that because of his disability he doesn't magically cure disabilities in his stories. This is something seen in a lot of fairy tales from other authors throughout history and even sometimes today. It's something that I remembered reading about in Disfigured by Amanda Leduc and it was interesting to see the opposite happening here. I can see why he is mentioned as being a beloved member of the blind community.

Overall, this was really interesting and I think this is going to attract readers who are just curious about Eroshenko himself as well as fans of modern fairy tales.

What an amazing book! I loved learning more about Eroshenko who i had not heard of prior to picking up this book, a person who seems to have lived many lives within one. Each of the stories, i felt could be read by younger and adult audiences alike, since each have mythical properties and deeper lessons alike. I am definitely going to buy a hard copy of this book for my shelf - a beautiful collection of stories!

The Narrow Cage and Other Modern Fairy Tales – Vasily Eroshenko (translated from Esperanto by Adam Kuplowsky)

Yes, that’s correct. A book in 2023 translated from Esperanto. Can’t imagine there are too many of those, but then there aren’t many books out there like this one.

It’s almost worth getting this book for the foreword setting out the life of Eroshenko – born in Ukraine in 1890, he lost his sight in childhood but luckily had access to a school for the blind, instilling in him a love for education and a passion for writing and politics. Exiled for his anarchist views, Eroshenko was exiled and eventually ended up in Japan, teaching the new artificial lingua franca of Esparanto. His travels promoting the language, as well as attempts to set up more schools for the blind, took him all of the world, exposing him to numerous cultures and tales.

Eronshenko took ideas from these fables, infused them with his Anarchist beliefs, and turned them into fairy tales that he ultimately hoped would spread his views as far as possible, hence his use of Esparanto. All this I took from the fantastic biographical forward by Jack Zipes, which really geared me up for what was to come.

All of which leads me to sadly say that I appreciated these tales, but couldn’t get to grips with many of them. There was clearly subversive themes to many of them, human queries and problems amorphized into more child-friendly forms – debates on the role of government, stabs at religious dogma, other more whimsical fare, all feature here. It felt like a book of its time that hasn’t necessarily aged into relevance as much as others (looking at you, Brave New World).

As a curio and piece of literary history I’m glad it exists. Unlike anything else I’ve ever read, and definitely more appealing to others. Honestly, I was happy with the foreword and to discover about a genuinely fascinating literary figure, one who I hope to explore more in the future.



Thanks to @netgalley and @columbiauniversitypress for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

These fables were wonderful. I had never heard of any of them before, so it was quite a treat to read them. And the fact that they were written by a multilingual blind man made them even more special, as they were incredibly descriptive. Very heartwarming and I learned something from each one!

When reading these stories you would never guess that the storyteller is blind and after reading some of the stories you would never guess they were written at the beginning of the 20th century. These stories are dark and at the same time make it thing they talk about oppressive and have such themes as government oppression wanting something that in the end you really don’t want at all and many other introspection‘s you have after consuming this book. When I started it I thought I would read a few stories and finish the rest later but that is almost impossible after starting this book. You can tell the author had a hunger for education as his verses are intelligent thought-provoking and definitely intriguing although some of them have talking animals don’t mistake it for cute and sweet stories because they are not. I loved The Narrow Cage And Other Modern Fairytales and highly recommend it. Even if reading historical fairytales aren’t you thing you’ll still truly enjoy these they could’ve very well been written by a writer today as they deal with many of the same issues. I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend it. From the forward until you get to the bibliography you will be captivated by at first the authors story and then by the stories the author has written… Absolutely brilliant… Such a good book. This should be mandatory reading in high school just for the fun of it. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Having never heard of Vasily Eroshenko, I was interested to learn more about him and enjoyed the biography of his life that began this collection of stories. He was clearly incredibly talented, well-travelled and interested in politics. He led an interesting life by all accounts and it made me intrigued to read his stories. Though this is called a collection of fairytales, they’re more fables - short tales often including or from the perspective of animals that comment on different elements of politics. It’s easy to see why these are popular, they’re clever and bold, and Eroshenko isn’t afraid to make a statement. They were sometimes a little confusing and I found myself losing the thread of the story and not comprehending the message, although that’s more a criticism of myself than the writing. The story of Little Pine was perhaps my favourite, but I did struggle to connect with a lot of others. Their shortness didn’t allow them much time to develop but I enjoyed the creativity of the stories, the vivid imagination that produced them and the passion within them.

The Narrow Cage and Other Modern Fairy Tales was a collection of stories for sure, but it was also a small biography of a very interesting author.

I have received this book in exchange of an honest review, thank you to Columbia University Press and Netgalley for the opportunity.

Release date: 7th of March 2023.

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I requested this book, or collection thinking that I'll be reading a few stories and that will be all that I take away with me. But, given the interesting addition of the biography, in a way, of Vasily Eroshenko, I find that his life is the one that got me to stay till the end.

It's not easy writing a book, collection or story as an able-bodied individual, but to be able to come up with several of them while being blind and going through the things that he did? That's just impressive. And easily, the main reason why I continued reading till the end.

I do know that my way of writing, may sound on the disappointed side, but that was not the case for the most part.

In clearer words, when an entire collection is written by the same person, it tends to mesh together for me after the first few. It happened in the anthology I read earlier this year by Sam J. Miller, and it has happened here again.

That in itself, is not something I consider bad given that my perception is going to be different to others, but I do consider it something that I like to avoid when reading anything. The silver lining here however, is that the stories are still very relevant and the pseudo fairy tale way they're being told can make it pretty accessible to most adults.

The few that stuck the most for me, were The Sad Little Fish, The Death of the Canary and The Narrow Cage. Although, I still consider his life story, to be the best The Narrow Cage and Other Modern Fairy Tales has to offer. I wouldn't have found out about him without this book however and that in itself, makes this collection of stories a very deserving read.

This was a fascinating set of fairytales; I had never heard of Eroshenko before and the kind of work they did, but I think I will check them out more in the future because their life story is absolutely incredible. Quite a few of the fairytales are inspired by Asian aesthetics and mythology, but hold more Western ideologies at times--it's an interesting mix obviously inspired by the author's life. They're fairly accessible and easy to read, so I recommend it for anyone looking for a more contemporary slant on the genre.

As it turns out, when you have a little known writer who was born blind in Russia, met an anarchist young, went to Japan, and ended up being a communist and blind activist in the Southeastern Asian region for most of his life, you get a hell of an interesting writer. When he turns his mind to some incredibly sarcastic fairy tales that are thinly veiled satires of society at large at that time, you get some fantastic fairy tales that will stick with you for a while post reading him. Definitely worth picking up.

The Narrow Cage & Other Fairy Tales is half biography, half actual fairy tales.

The book begins with a fascinating biography of the author, Vasily Eroshenko. I was not at all familiar with this interesting human, but honestly as many others have said, I would have almost read an entire book on his life and skipped out on the tales.

That said, the tales themselves are short, but transcend time and are relevant today.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I definitely wouldn’t have picked it up without the opportunity to do so from NetGalley!

Thank you to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really do love modern collections of fairytales, and even more so one that center on a non-Western culture. This collection really encapsulates all that is beautiful and terrible in the myths and folklore of many East Asian countries. I found myself wanting to read many of these over again just to see what else I would get from them on a second or third reread.

Highly enjoyable, and a wonderful way to break up the monotony of the day, especially if you're not in the mood to dive into a really long, dense story/novel.