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

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. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings