Benioff turns the buddy comedy (two completely mismatched guys are thrown together and forge a bond while overcoming big obstacles) into a beautiful tragi-comic tale. Lev and Kolya must find a dozen eggs in siege-starved Leningrad and environs or be executed. This unlikely scenario provides a scaffold from which Benioff can hang a series of almost unbelievably grim tableaux of violence and horror. But he does so in an understated way, with smooth transitions and tight editing. (
Linda's review points out that Benioff is a highly successful writer of screenplays and it certainly shows.) A brief and lovely piece of writing.
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