Status Updates From Vie et destin

Not a light read. But a brilliant one. I’m not the most familiar with Holocaust literature but Grossman’s prose is truly gut-wrenching, especially the foreboding sense of inevitability. Similar to War and Peace, the story moves between different pockets of characters constantly… I don’t think the story has been in Stalingrad since the beginning. Thoroughly enjoying so far.

This is a formidable 875+ page novel in small print with a cast of characters having complex Russian names plus their patronyms which require eight pages to list in the appendix, and takes place in at least 15 different settings including Russian and Nazi prison camps, battlefields in the Russian steppes and various underground bunkers in and around Stalingrad.
Think of War and Peace and Doctor Zhivago. A must read.

Grossman’s prose is stunningly beautiful. An overall sense of defamiliarization of the war reminds me a lot of Tolstoy. There are also like 150 named characters in this book and 8 pages of character lists in the back. I’m just meeting the Soviet airmen 170 pages in and they are pretty intriguing. I need a shorter book rec after this so hmu.