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A review by casparb
Life And Fate by Vasily Grossman
Before I get too excited i’m still firmly in camp Bely but I don’t think it too much to say this book is the most effective capture of the Tolstoyan mantle I’ve probably ever read. It blends the nineteenth century Russian novel with socialist realism & surprisingly that actually works there’s a miracle of style here. Most shocking is that I never felt Grossman’s politics too heavy handed, polemical, or dogmatic. This is so rare for me & I tend to only encounter it with some of the Russian masters, for whatever reason. Platonov very much outside of that gathering (going by TFP anyway).
Cues from Война и Мир all over the place we even have both Hitler and Stalin as characters which I’m sure Tolstoy would have appreciated. But for me, one the most interesting aspects of Жизнь и Судьба is the discussion of what it means to write a War and Peace.
So - life is freedom. Or otherwise. I think Grossman is never too high-minded with his encompassing reflectives but —
“You say life is treedom. Is that what people in the camps think? What if the life expanding through the universe should use its power to create a slavery still more terrible than your slavery of inanimate matter? Do you think this man of the future will surpass Christ in his goodness? That's the real question. … What if he transforms the whole world into a galactic concentration camp? What I want to know is - do you believe in the evolution of kindness, morality, mercy? Is man capable of evolving in that way?”
Such a magisterial unfolding of history of Stalingrad there’s really just so little like it and it may be the one book where I have to say War and Peace is a pre-requisite. Good luck there
The light of evening can reveal the essence of a moment. It can bring out its emotional and historical significance, transforming a mere impression into a powerful image. The evening sun can endow patches of soot and mud with thousands of voices; with aching hearts we sense past joys, the irrevocability of loss, the bitterness of mistakes and the eternal appeal of hope.
Cues from Война и Мир all over the place we even have both Hitler and Stalin as characters which I’m sure Tolstoy would have appreciated. But for me, one the most interesting aspects of Жизнь и Судьба is the discussion of what it means to write a War and Peace.
So - life is freedom. Or otherwise. I think Grossman is never too high-minded with his encompassing reflectives but —
“You say life is treedom. Is that what people in the camps think? What if the life expanding through the universe should use its power to create a slavery still more terrible than your slavery of inanimate matter? Do you think this man of the future will surpass Christ in his goodness? That's the real question. … What if he transforms the whole world into a galactic concentration camp? What I want to know is - do you believe in the evolution of kindness, morality, mercy? Is man capable of evolving in that way?”
Such a magisterial unfolding of history of Stalingrad there’s really just so little like it and it may be the one book where I have to say War and Peace is a pre-requisite. Good luck there
The light of evening can reveal the essence of a moment. It can bring out its emotional and historical significance, transforming a mere impression into a powerful image. The evening sun can endow patches of soot and mud with thousands of voices; with aching hearts we sense past joys, the irrevocability of loss, the bitterness of mistakes and the eternal appeal of hope.