Jack Feise > Recent Status Updates

IT’S SO PEAK

I’m sold.

I want to go to the Salinas Valley.

So fire. Kinda dense.

The entire German 6th army surrenders at Stalingra . Paulus not committing suicide (Roman Catholic btw) after getting promoted to Field Marshal was such a middle finger to Hitler in this section. After doing some more research his exact line was “I have no intention of shooting myself for this Bohemian corporal.” The part about this state mandated propagandistic martyrdom is so interesting too.

Nearing the end. I have no idea how you even end this book.

About 200 pages to go. I feel like this book could go an extra 2k pages with the amount of storylines. Will be a difficult review at the end. Need a shorter book next.

Counteroffensive!!!

The end is in sight (kind of). Today’s section was intense. Breathtaking. But incredibly sad.

Wanted to read more pages today but got stuck in the Wikipedia rabbit hole of reading Soviet ace pilot stories.

RIP House 6/1

Mirrors.

St. John Chrysostom is so based idk why the Princeton religion department badmouths him. Anyways. Some great spiritual reading.

The science passages in this book are more interesting than the science passages on the LSAT.

Steppe horseman has aura.

Informant!

House 6/1 is holding it down. Even kittens can survive in Stalingrad?!?!?

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.

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.

Read “The Seagull” It was nice. Listed as a comedy but ends in a suicide. Not nice.

Still getting introduced to everyone… very much like War and Peace that the character list for this book is nearly 8 pages long in the back of the book. The marathon continues. Haven’t even made it to Stalingrad yet…

The characters of this book are like your college friends that you cry over when you have to inevitably leave them. I’m glad I got to spread my BK propaganda to a new audience though. 150 pages to go!

Currently rereading with the #gang. Best book ever. Need more people to read this.

If this is 100 pages in… I’m gonna need a lot of time to process the next 800. Stunning writing. A psychological exposé of fascism that certain present day figures would really benefit from reading (though I assume Grossman is far above their reading level…) This book is already shaping up to be EPIC — both as a literal, all encompassing historical epic, and in the overall style.

Wow. So much of this book reminds me of War and Peace… dare I say I like it better. It’s so interesting that so much of the style is in conversation with War and Peace - I’m glad I read that Grossman ONLY read W+P while actually at Stalingrad! The metaphors and description are brilliant. Hopefully I don’t finish it before Tuesday… I think I might binge Russian WW2 books the rest of the summer.

So excited for this. Needed a book for a long plane ride(s). LFG