RUSSIAN JOURNAL<i> by John Steinbeck photographs by Robert Capa (Paragon House: $10.95) </i>

The first appearance in paper of this travel book, originally published in 1948 by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck and news photographer Robert Capa. Both witnessed the destruction that World War II wrought in the western Soviet Union, and watched the Soviet people begin the daunting task of rebuilding their shattered country. Perhaps he was inhibited by the language barrier or the restrictions on his freedom of movement, but Steinbeck’s effort to present a portrait of the Russian people never rises above the superficial. He finds the “average” citizens friendly, the accommodations abominable, the bureaucracy comically inept. But he fails to establish the connection between the land and the people that gives “Travels With Charley” its insightful warmth.