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4.47 AVERAGE
4.47 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Go read Stalingrad.
Life and Fate picks up where Stalingrad left off but with a heavy shift in tone. Stalingrad is primarily a war novel but Life and Fate is a much more of a novel to contemplate over. Grossman compares and tears into the authoritative systems of Germany and Russia, a complete overhaul from Stalingrad where any criticism was necessarily (for purposes of getting it published) oblique, subtle.
The letter referred to in Stalingrad is here and it was some of the best pages I have ever read. The fate of the jewish people in German occupied territory and Russia is explored. The price that was paid to defeat the Germans was immense, and in Life and Fate we really get a feel for that toll.
Luck plays a large part in survival, of bombs, of bullets, or of a wrong word. There is a heavy emphasis on the political system both civilians and soldiers had to try to live within.
The scope of Grossman’s work is vast, in around 2000 pages we get everything I would want in a war story. Both books are 5 star for me and highly recommended. I can’t rate one higher than the other, Stalingrad felt more enjoyable, Life and Fate gave me more to think about.
Life and Fate picks up where Stalingrad left off but with a heavy shift in tone. Stalingrad is primarily a war novel but Life and Fate is a much more of a novel to contemplate over. Grossman compares and tears into the authoritative systems of Germany and Russia, a complete overhaul from Stalingrad where any criticism was necessarily (for purposes of getting it published) oblique, subtle.
The letter referred to in Stalingrad is here and it was some of the best pages I have ever read. The fate of the jewish people in German occupied territory and Russia is explored. The price that was paid to defeat the Germans was immense, and in Life and Fate we really get a feel for that toll.
Luck plays a large part in survival, of bombs, of bullets, or of a wrong word. There is a heavy emphasis on the political system both civilians and soldiers had to try to live within.
The scope of Grossman’s work is vast, in around 2000 pages we get everything I would want in a war story. Both books are 5 star for me and highly recommended. I can’t rate one higher than the other, Stalingrad felt more enjoyable, Life and Fate gave me more to think about.
I finished reading Life and Fate a few days ago and I’m still thinking about it. It is extraordinary. I haven’t read anyone better on the impact of war on combatants, civilians and even animals. There are parts of this book that are so powerful you have a physical reaction. I also valued Grossman’s defence of the individual and the right of each person to live their life. When I finished, I wanted to start reading all over again and I know that I will get even more from a re-reading.
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
bbc dramatization of this book fucked my ears up, good though fairly similar to book
Said to be the greatest work of Vasily Grossman, Jewish Soviet journalist and author, this book was impounded and almost certainly destroyed in 1960 by the KGB, but Grossman had given copies to two friends. Finally published in English in the 1980s and in Russia during the period of glasnost in 1988, this is a great, moving, and terrible account of the siege of Stalingrad, the Holocaust, the Gulag, and the circumstances and philosophy of everyday life in Stalin’s Soviet Union. The author constructed the work as a new War and Peace with similarities including the title itself, the many characters, its episodic nature, Hitler and Paulus substituting for Napoleon, and probably many others that I’ve missed. Some of the episodes are reminiscent of Chekov’s stories, with their examination of complex human behavior, the use of humor, the lack of a tied-up ending and the sense that the characters continue on after the story ends. Grossman’s well-known fine powers of observation, his interviewing techniques, and his imagination yield especially striking accounts of the thoughts of a child entering the Auschwitz gas chamber and of a Soviet Commissar undergoing interrogation at the Lubyanka prison in Moscow.
Some of the author’s thoughts that caught my eye:
And what did this doctrine of peace and love bring to humanity?....[It] caused more suffering than all the crimes of the people who did evil for its own sake.....People are wrong to see life as a struggle between good and evil....[human kindness] is what is truly human in a human being....Kindness is powerful only while it is powerless.
By the way, do you know the difference between a good type and a bad type? A good type is someone who behaves swinishly in spite of himself.
Tell me what you accuse the Jews of–I’ll tell you what you’re guilty of.
...however rich and famous a man may be, he will still grow old, die and yield his place to the young; that perhaps nothing matters except to live one’s life honestly.
You say life is freedom. Is that what people in the camps think?
Some of the author’s thoughts that caught my eye:
And what did this doctrine of peace and love bring to humanity?....[It] caused more suffering than all the crimes of the people who did evil for its own sake.....People are wrong to see life as a struggle between good and evil....[human kindness] is what is truly human in a human being....Kindness is powerful only while it is powerless.
By the way, do you know the difference between a good type and a bad type? A good type is someone who behaves swinishly in spite of himself.
Tell me what you accuse the Jews of–I’ll tell you what you’re guilty of.
...however rich and famous a man may be, he will still grow old, die and yield his place to the young; that perhaps nothing matters except to live one’s life honestly.
You say life is freedom. Is that what people in the camps think?