Customer Reviews
Notes from the Pit - By: Keris Nine, 05 Feb 2010 
Written between 1909 & 1915in three parts by the enfant terrible of Russian literature, Alexander Kuprin's Yama is an extraordinarily frank & in-depth look at the nature of prostitution that must certainly have been revolutionary for its time as it is no less powerful & relevant today. The novel recounts the lives of the prostitutes of a run-down outlying district of a large southern Russian town of Odessa, the district known as Yamaskaya, or, more commonly, Yama - The Pit.
Inevitably, the depiction of the impoverished circumstances of the lifestyle of the girls at Anna Markovna's house of ill repute - a lower quality 2-rouble establishment on Little Yamaskaya (the more upmarket brothels operatingin Greater Yamaskaya) - is grim, sordid & degrading, but the novel looks realistically at the outlook maintained by the women & the lives that they have escaped from that permits them to endure the hardships of their profession. Some of the clients are indeed foul & the women are at the mercy of murderous pimps, but each of the girls although inclined to gossip & compete with each other, are determined to please as women, wishing to be seen or treated as special - a perhaps surprising notion, but one that is clearly accurately related to basic human nature.
That kind of perceptive observation is related, by extension through the clients from all walks of life that the women receive, out into societyin general, reflecting other less savoury aspects of Russian life, attitudes & behaviour. Divided into three parts, it's expansivein this respect, considering the social & moral implications of prostitution, examining the case of one woman Liubka who leaves the brothel under the tutelage of a "benefactor", & that of another, Jennka, who succumbs to the psychological pressures & medical hazards of the prostitute, takingin along the way journalists, students & a baroness, all of them trying to form a moral view on the subject that they can reconcile with their own natures, as well as a travelling salesman who traffics the women from one part of the country to another &in the process even extending his business into a multinational operation.
Yama is an extensive & expansive look then at all aspects of the commerce of prostitution, the need for the profession & the morality of it as it relates to different parts of society, but it's no mere academic exercise. There is a remarkable degree of detail accurately observedin the psychology & behaviour of many of the characters, the whole subject vividly & colourfully depicted with precision & authenticity.
strange old book - By: Julia, 19 Mar 2009 
My mother remembered this book from her youth as something her brothers kept hidden from view so she bought it out of curiosity. The most interesting thing was that, at 92 years old, she couldn't find anything very saucyin it by today's standards.
