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4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
i liked more than i expected to and it was funny at times but the ending was so incomplete and it felt like there wasn’t any real thought or intention behind it
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
adventurous
dark
funny
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
After over a year, I have finally found a replacement for Blacktop Wasteland as my go-to recommendation when people ask what I have recently read that I recommend. In Vonnegutian fashion, Benioff injects humor into a dark tale of suffering during the Second World War. It's sort of a coming-of-age story too, with a 17-year-old protagonist, Lev, who is in way over his head. He reminds me of myself at that age, but with way bigger problems. Lev's survival efforts in St. Petersburg during the German siege are interrupted by an unusual quest he must carry out with Kolya, an annoying, talkative soldier. I love the characters and the way that they are tested throughout this perfect story. Once the plot started moving, I could not put this book down!
Too much non-fiction lately, had forgotten how engrossing it can be to dive into a good novel. It's a short book, but a solid read. It feels glib to say a book set during the siege of Leningrad was a light, summer read, but I enjoyed my time with Lev, Kolya, and Vika. I was impressed with Benioff's brevity - the book cranks along, somehow finishing in a brisk 260 pages and sticking the landing a bit better than his later efforts.
adventurous
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book has some really lovely, well phrased descriptions, and one-liners, though its harrowing ones are more vivid; the brutality of Nazis, the sickness of war, how unbearable people can be to one another, in the name of —what? Power? Domination. Control. There are many great descriptions of violence, abuse, torture, terror, with the casual, still somber brush of adapted normalcy. Despite this, there is humor, love, camaraderie, and a restrained hope that gestures at being mature and realistic, despite those adjectives being ill suited for the concept. The joy for living in the face of these horrors, when it rears, is stark, and a relief.
It is very much a boy narrative. Amid death and war, there is always room for meditations on naked thighs and masturbatory fancies. I suppose the sex drive links us to life itself, and can enable unrealistic endurance, unless weaponized, used as an instrument of suffering; which, while not impossible, is much less frequent a torment reserved for men, both in general and during war. While so much of the sex had, or referenced in this book is explicit, said explicitness is saved largely for moments of consent; and while the violence is often described in detail, sexual violence remains a foggier, more distant allusion, that we, blessedly, don’t have to experience in the present tense or in first person. Despite their obsession with the act or idea of getting laid, they are lovable, Lev and Kolya; charming, eager teenagers who hate war, and who also love one other with a commitment unique to the atrocities they’ve endured. And Kolya, in all his brash fearlessness and humor, remains endearing to all, the reader included (despite his “calculated neglect” bullshit).
Most surprisingly for me, I think, were the many specific references to Russian novelists, essayists, and poets; the many invocations of authors, titles, and quotes, both heralding in allusion and openly praising the sustaining power of literature. I liked that as an unexpected through line, the narrator being the son of a poet, Kolya being a writer at heart.
“You could not fight in moderation,” Lev says of the war, of staying alive. Some things you just can’t compromise on. And Kolya’s death was such a letdown. I’m glad that wasn’t horrific and brutal, but its casualness and inevitability were both so sad, despite expecting that it would happen. It just seems so unfair. Especially after Lev makes it back to the Colonel. But, of course, right? Aphorisms exist (and repeat, ad nauseam throughout human history) for a reason. War is hell. People are flawed. Accidents happen. The brutality is in the banal.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Torture, Violence, War
Moderate: Cannibalism
Audiobook narrator was wonderful.
As vulgar & violent as story it was integral to the story which was incredibly moving. There was just enough humor to help break up the tenseness and dialogue seemed very authentic.
As vulgar & violent as story it was integral to the story which was incredibly moving. There was just enough humor to help break up the tenseness and dialogue seemed very authentic.