Welcome to Litsy!

I tried. I really did. But, unlike other Russian novels that I've enjoyed, this goes so deep into the Soviet political and war machines that I just couldn't get into it. It might work for someone else! #boxwalla

5⭐️ I was in awe of the cruelty in fascist and totalitarian regimes, of forcing people to choose between survival and acting on their conscience. I must admit that I lost my faith in humanity halfway through the book, and was reminded by Grossman himself as he wrote: “But I do believe in the future. I believe that it is not only man‘s power that will evolve, but also his soul, his capacity to love.”

“I was a fool then, and I‘m still a fool now.”

THE END 🥰

“... alive today, dead tomorrow.”

I‘m left with the last 70 pages, and feel very conflicted. This is the usual bookworm problem: excited to find out about the ending, but also sad that it‘s ending soon 🤪

“To deprive a man of his conscience is a terrible crime. And if a man has the strength to listen to his conscience and then act on it, he feels a surge of happiness.”

This is the hardest part to read so far. It‘s so heartwrenching I had to take a few days break

“... if you wish to remain a human being under Facism, there is an easier option than survival - death.”

“What is ‘good‘? ‘Good‘ for whom? Is there a common good - the same for all people, all tribes, all conditions of life? Or is my good your evil? Is what is good for my people evil for your people? Is good eternal and constant? Or is yesterday‘s good today‘s vice, yesterday‘s evil today‘s good?”

I‘m only halfway, but I must say that this has been a rewarding read so far. I did a lot of google search to understand more about Leninism, Bolsheviks vs Menshiviks, October Revolution, The Great Purge, Stalinism, etc. It has also posed a lot of questions about humanity, and I‘ve been spending some time pondering about it 😃

Not a quick read, definitely... maybe another week or two with this chunkster 💝

“... if the most brilliant victories had failed to bear the expected fruits, this was because they hadn‘t been carried through with the necessary tenacity and decisiveness. At the same time, ... the ability to abandon an objective that had lost its meaning was a sign of strength.”

Super slow progress with this novel 😄

“One of the most astonishing human traits that came to light at this time was obidience.... This obidience bears witness to a new force acting on human beings. The extreme violence of totalitarian social systems proved able to paralyse the human spirit throughout whole continents.”

😢 I pray that those powerful people stay sane (tough luck in this era, I know), and the world peace is intact

“Sofya now understood the difference between life and existence: her life had come to an end, but her existence could drag on indefinitely.”

Because it‘s such a chunky book, I‘m splitting it into 9 parts so that I don‘t feel overwhelmed 🙂

I teared when I read Anna Semyonovna‘s last letter to her son Viktor 😢 I cannot imagine how she felt, alone in a Jewish ghetto without her family, knowing that she‘s facing death soon. She is modelled on Grossman‘s own mother who experienced the same fate. I‘m heartbroken 💔

Starting this now. I‘m so excited!

Since @emilyhaldi suggested reading #NYRBchunksters I wanted to show off my old edition,one of the reviews of Grossmans Stalingrad mentions that they overlap .This edition was a publishing event in March of 1986 https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/10/25/review-vasily-grossmans-stalingrad/

One of my reading goals for the year is to tackle one of these #nyrbchunksters ... Who's with me?! If any #NYRBclassics lovers or #NYRBbookclub members have any interest, hit me up for a buddy read 👋🏻

Day 4 #7covers7days

Would you like to join @PlayingBonny ? Post a photo of your favorite covers each day for a week, no explanation, and each day invite a Litten to play the game #CoverCrush

Last challenge for this year - done ✅ and my favorite book from this list is V. Grossman -Life and Fate.

#ReadAroundTheWorld

This story demands commitment, but the reward at the end is absolutely worth the time. It isn‘t a flawless story, but it is the story with clear message - that there is no difference between totalitarian regimes, and is the story through which you can understand without any judgment what it means living in psychotic times when line between right and wrong isn‘t clear anymore, and when your personal moral/ethics is question of the state.

I‘m speechless ...

From my current read. I‘m few pages in and I already like it❣️

I really like this collection with playful, vibrant #nakedSpines Interesting choice for heavy stories.

#readingResolutions

I really want this to be my next read, but I've been having so little time to read and this seems like such an investment time-wise that I am unsure if I will manage! But I've heard it be compared to war and peace ( one of my absolute favourites) and the story sounds so interesting that I think I'll have to try it out!

What I like...is he's not trying to teach me anything.

A girl was embracing a fair haired soldier... meanwhile the rest of the world was perfectly still.

...the strange incongruity between the tremendous military strength of the Soviet state and this dark kitchen with its poverty, gossip and general pettiness; the incongruity between cold, hard steel and kitchen pots and pans full of potato peelings.

A few of my newest arrivals. I think Life and Fate is going to be my next "Challenging Read" that I'll take a couple months working my way through on the side. I've heard great things.

I splurged and ordered these from the UK. They're part of the Vintage Classic Russians Series that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution. So far, I just see the Anna Karenina one available in the US. (I'll buy the other three next paycheck. 😍)

Read this book if you're into:
Stalinist Russia
Historical Fiction
Crying by yourself in a busy café

Taking advantage of the time difference here in Tokyo to be one of the first open my Valentine's Day presents! @Simona oh my God what a wonderful assortment of bookish and other goodies! Thank you so much! Probably my favorite thing was your warm, very personal message in the card! The books look fantastic and all the other stuff too! If you can wait until next year, let's buddy-read Life and Fate! 😘❤😘❤
#CupidGoesPostal #ValentinesBookExchange.

'Remember and that your mother's love is always with you, in grief and in happiness, no one has the strength to destroy it.' #LifeandFate #PowerfulWords #RussianClassic

Clearly intended to be the War and Peace of the 20th century -- I confess I am still making my way through War and Peace but about a third of the way through that book and would pick Life and Fate over it (you know, in case you are really struggling with which Russian epic novel to choose....if you are on Litsy I assume you want to and should read both! :)

My favorite page of the year, from the NYRB's amazing LIFE AND FATE. Chills.

A classic of of WW2, totalitarianism versus freedom, and the state versus the individual. A must read.

How can one describe that last, quick look at a beloveds face? How can a man live with the merciless memory of how, during the silence of parting, he blinked for a moment to hide the crude joy he felt at having managed to save his life?

"What does a woman who has lost her children care about a philosophers definition of good and evil?"

"A soul can live in torment for years and years, even decades, as it slowly, stone by stone, builds a mound over a grave; as it moves towards the apprehension of eternal loss and bows down before reality."

"Instead of valour or gallantry, you could hear the sadness of a soul parting with everything it loved..."