Life and Fate

Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, 880 pages.
I started reading this when I found it on a display that Kathleen or Christa had made for last year's summer reading book, Anna Karenina. I think it was the iconic photo on the cover of two Soviet soldiers during the battle for Berlin that first drew me to the book. I read the first chapter or two and then checked it back in. I tried again a little while later, once translated books started counting for double points in our reading challenge. I think that I started reading it in earnest after seeing Grossman and his war writings discussed while reading Nicholas Stargardt's The German War this past January. Reading this massive work was slow going, though; the characters' Russian names,their diminutives and patronymics can be confusing, plus, while the time-span over the course of the novel is relatively short, the book jumps around geographically, from Stalingrad to Moscow, from the death camps, to POW camps, to the Gulag. But mostly it was the sheer number of characters that had me turning to the back of the book, to scan through the handy and comprehensive list of participants. Once I had everyone straight, the story went more quickly.
Life and Fate follows Viktor Shtrum, his wife Lyudmila, her siblings, all of their children, and Viktor's colleagues during the later war years as the fate of Stalingrad, and the war itself are in the balance. The book explores how they all live their lives caught between Stalin and Hitler between victory and disaster. Vicktor's Jewish heritage adds a layer of complication to his life, as Russian anti-Semitism does little to reassure those trying to escape Hitler's minions. Victor's mother, caught behind the German lines, and sent to a concentration camp bravely decides to accompany a lonely little boy when there was still a chance that she could save herself.
It is a book that tells us that no matter what horrific situations one finds oneself in, there is almost always some hope and something worth fighting for, and that conversely, when life is seemingly at its best there is always room for despair. It's a sweeping torrent that carries you along. A fascinating writer and an excellent book. Well worth the time.
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