Life and Fate

I concur. This is a brilliant book and one that everyone should read. So ambitious and so successful. The themes that run throughout are complex, real, and human. This novel tells the story of how terrifying, resilient and convoluted the world can be. I was gripped the whole way through.

Not Just A War Story - A Book Full of Wonders (1/1 people found this helpful)

This book is about human nature, a subject which many authors have shown to be thrust into prominence by hardship and deprivation. In this case the 'clear and present' hardship is the battle for Stalingrad, but this horrific struggle needs to be seen in the context of the relentless political repression that had been maintained rigorously by Josef Stalin during the period that Hitler was gaining influence. In this book, as in Tolstoy's 'War and Peace', we see a host of individuals, some complex, some simple, thrown together by an all-too-human blend of coincidence and prejudice. Grossman manages to bring out so many facets of private human existence within this public agony that I was left reeling at its depth, breadth, and even completeness. A wonder-full book!

Flawed masterpiece (4/5 people found this helpful)

I have now finished this book and essentially, my original view at three quarters through stands. I still give it five stars - not because it is the greatest novel since hype began, but because it gives an insight like no other work of fiction into the nature of the totalitarian system.

The wonder of it is that Grossman wrote it all, given the conditions under which he had to work. Even more of a wonder is that he tried to have it published in the Soviet Union! Finally, the third wonder is that two copies of the manuscript evaded the destruction that was ordered by the authorities.

This is not a novel of war, or the psychology of conflict. The war is the backdrop on which Grossman hangs, or better said weaves the workings of the state and how it manipulates the lives and fates of ordinary people. Having read war reports, one can see that sections of the book seem self-conciously lifted and shoe-horned in, to add "colour" and authenticity to the backdrop. It is for this reason, I consider the book flawed. Not in spirit, nor in concept, nor even in the quality of the superbly translated prose. It is the contrivance and self conciousness of certain sections - for instance the last chapter with its self-concious references to the cycles of change, earth, growth, rebirth to "round off" the book seems lifted straight from a Hollywood kitsch ending to an otherwise fine film. The book would not be what it is however, without these warts and all, and in the way that Marcus Clarke's "His Natural Life", gave a voice to the experience of the colonial convict settlements in Oceania, this book is not perfect literature, but it is a perfect expression of a time and place and the horror of its existence. Read it. It is essential for any understanding of what the twenieth century was for Eastern and Central Europeans.

Best Russian novel of the Soviet era (6/6 people found this helpful)

This is a monumental novel, worthy of the description that has sometimes been applied to it of being the twentieth century's War and Peace. It details a range of suffering and cruelties, both large and petty, on all sides. Many of the day to day details of Stalinism are here: the constant presence of denunciations and the way small events can make or break someone's life, such as the central character of Viktor Shtrum falling due to his contacts with non-Russian scientists and then rising after a telephone call from Stalin praising his work, or Krymov being arrested and beaten up despite his years of loyal service and belief in the cause. Other particularly memorable sequences include the gas chamber scenes and the dialogue between a Nazi officer and Soviet prisoner Mostovskoy as the former tries and nearly succeeds in convincing his captive that Nazism and Communism are marching in the same direction.

I generally find descriptions of actual battle scenes fairly tedious to read, but they are there as they should be and due attention is paid to the significance of Stalingrad as the turning point in leading to the defeat of Nazism.

From the Soviet regime's point of view it is hardly surprising Suslov told Grossman it could not be published for 200 years as it goes well beyond criticism of Stalin and destroys the whole raison d'etre of the Soviet regime. In this respect it goes beyond the much better known Doktor Zhivago, an excellent novel but probably more famous in the West very largely because of the superb David Lean film. For me, Life and Fate tops Pasternak's novel as the best Russian novel of the Soviet era.

First Class (4/4 people found this helpful)

I stumbled upon this epic brick of a novel 18 months ago following Chandler's recomendation in The Guardian's Review. Since then my broken toe has recovered but the novel remained unread, more of an aesthetic press-piece(lovely photo/design of the Vintage classics edition).
I'd tried to read it but was a bit put off by Grossman's writing style, and of my own not quite keen enough interest in the Stalingrad siege.
These quibbles with Grossman's style are now totally unfounded. He is a major writer. Descriptive of the environment, human sentiments and of the historical situation and importantly for myself scientific, philosophic and artistic issues.
My thoughts and emotions became involved with this novels content.
Having finished it I am wiser for the events it describes: Stalingrad (from a Russian as awell as German perspective)and the persecution of the Jews and of those out of line with the State of Stalin.

Vasily Grossman

Reader Reviews:

Life and Fate - A book everyone should read (1/1 people found this helpful)

Not Just A War Story - A Book Full of Wonders (1/1 people found this helpful)

Flawed masterpiece (4/5 people found this helpful)

Best Russian novel of the Soviet era (6/6 people found this helpful)

First Class (4/4 people found this helpful)

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