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littleredwinter's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
5.0
In the US, soldiers from WWII are lauded as heroes. We tend to view the western front of WWII as being the only front and forget about the men and especially women who fought for the Soviet Union on the eastern front. Further, WWII is seen by Americans even those who condemn other wars as uniquely moral and justified because we were fighting Nazis. What is not discussed is how even a war waged to end a genocide is bloody and brutal. Svetlana Alexievich does not censor the women she interviewed and they do not hold back. The horror of war rears its ugly head in plain view as these women describe in visceral detail exactly what they went through, how they felt about it then, and how they feel about it decades later now that they have been forced to live with it. This book is a thoughtful intersectional feminist view of war from the perspective of women who lived through that and relive it to this day. An especially important read with how few of them are left. I cannot recommend this enough. It will make you stop and carefully consider everything you learned in school and everything you believed about WWII.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Violence, Medical trauma, Vomit, War, Blood, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape
hidingzeus's review against another edition
slow-paced
4.5
It's hard to think of rating this when it really is just a bunch of women's stories collected together. This was heart-wrenching. I say women. Some of these 'women' were no older than 15! They were so young, they grew taller during the war!
minguyen's review against another edition
4.0
Sách là một quyển hồi ký nên tính nghệ thuật không quá cao, chủ yếu thể hiện tính hiện thực. Những chương đầu bị lan man, vụn vặt không hấp dẫn lắm, nhưng 3 chương cuối thực sự làm mình khóc rất nhiều. Mỗi lời tâm sự đều có thể phát triển thành một historical fiction. 4.5/5 sao
seph5040's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Child death, Death, Torture, Murder, and War
katie_l21's review against another edition
5.0
This was an incredible book! Taking the stories of different Russian women during WWII was a great idea and Svetlana Alexievich perfectly captured the stories of these heros! A genuinely phenomenal non-fiction book!
ameliatmoss's review against another edition
5.0
Truly an awesome book. I love how many interviews she did and that the stories all compliment each other in one way or another. It's really an entirely different perspective on the war, one that I didn't know existed until I read this book. The women are passionate and honest and open and real and it is so valuable that they allow themselves to be that way so they can share their stories. I also like that it can be picked up whenever as it's a bunch of interviews so you don't really have to follow any sort of storyline. My only criticism is the organization of the stories didn't make much sense to me and the author herself has some overly flowery little intros, but I have a feeling that it's the translations fault.
So many great quotes but this one is one of my favorites:
"I'll say this: if you're not a woman, you can't survive a war. I never envied men. Not in my childhood, not in my youth. Not during the war. I was always glad to be a woman. People say that weapons - submachine guns, pistols - are beautiful, that they conceal many human thoughts, passions, but I never found them beautiful. I've seen the admiration of men looking at a fine pistol; I find it incomprehensible. I'm a woman." - Elena Borizovna Zvyaginsteva (Private, Armorer)
So many great quotes but this one is one of my favorites:
"I'll say this: if you're not a woman, you can't survive a war. I never envied men. Not in my childhood, not in my youth. Not during the war. I was always glad to be a woman. People say that weapons - submachine guns, pistols - are beautiful, that they conceal many human thoughts, passions, but I never found them beautiful. I've seen the admiration of men looking at a fine pistol; I find it incomprehensible. I'm a woman." - Elena Borizovna Zvyaginsteva (Private, Armorer)