Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II by Svetlana Alexiévich

8 reviews

lizziaha's review against another edition

5.0

This book is just a deluge of pain and grief and raw humanity. And because of that humanity, hope and love manage to shine through, against all odds. This definitely reframed the Russian front for me, and gave me a whole new perspective on Russian women and their part in the war. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Violence, Animal death, War, Antisemitism, Blood, Gun violence, Hate crime, Child death, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Rape, Suicide attempt, Deportation, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

thebowandthebook's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Vivid, stark and gruesome, this book spared little detail but provided a remarkable look into the sides of WW2 not often seen. Truly illuminated the difference between the woman's views on war and the men's. Excellent read, so many stories... so many lives.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Rape, Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Child death, Animal death, Antisemitism, Gore, Torture, Sexual assault, War, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Minor: Infidelity, Excrement, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, and Medical content

rcsreads's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Torture, Blood, Death, Grief, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Rape

cword's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Torture, War, Misogyny, Body horror, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Child abuse, Death, and Domestic abuse

srm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Misogyny, War, Child death, Death, and Blood

Minor: Sexual violence and Suicide

serendipitysbooks's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

 The Unwomanly Face of War is an example of oral history at its finest. The author spent a decade travelling around the Soviet Union interviewing hundreds of women who contributed to the Soviet war effort, whether that be as partisans, sappers, snipers, nurses, laundresses, pilots, tank drivers, machine gunners and more. You name it and a Soviet woman probably did it. The result is a brilliant collection of their own words - some lengthy, others smaller snippets, grouped around a theme - relating the reality of their war experiences, experiences that were recognised with medals at the time but were neglected, silenced or disparaged in later years. It’s a story of women desperate to do their bit, many eager to serve on the front lines, having to make do with male uniforms and deal with scepticism from male leaders - at least at first. It’s a story full of blood, fear, horror and exhaustion, of memories that still haunted them forty years later. It’s a story that not only includes the war but also the realities of the lives of the women - of missing children left behind, of having to deal with periods without any necessary supplies, of dealing with grief when a loved one died, of missing feeling like a woman. What it isn’t is dry, boring or impersonal, charges levelled, often justly, at many official histories. It also expertly manages to capture both the commonalities of the women’s experiences as a whole and the unique nature of each individual woman’s war.

The other thing I appreciated about the volume is that the author included some of her experience creating the book - her inspiration, the reactions of women when she contacted them, her own thoughts and feelings as her work progressed, and some of the material Soviet censors rejected when the books was first published.

So glad that I finally picked this book up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Misogyny

valentia's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Sexual violence, Misogyny, Gun violence, and Death

ssreadsintranslation's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture and Death

Minor: Antisemitism and Misogyny