Scan barcode
theravingcelt's review against another edition
4.0
Grossman was a profoundly sincere and evocative writer, gifted with clarity and a patient skill for encouraging the men he followed into battle against fascism to convey their experiences. Whether his short passages musing on the effects of the war across the Russian plains or extended descriptions of the clash and flow of battle, his prose holds your attention and stays with you long after.
The only slight against this text is the editor’s constant wailing about the “tyrannical evils of Red Stalinist terror”. I know not to expect anything less than squeamish Anglo academics, but instances where Beevor has the gall to suggest Ukrainian collaborators took part in the Holocaust “perhaps as a reactionary to Soviet persecution in the 1930s” (without any sources cited for such a claim!) speaks to a perverse inveterate reaction against communism that I find doubly distasteful when discussing the crimes of a profoundly anti-communist regime like the Nazis.
The only slight against this text is the editor’s constant wailing about the “tyrannical evils of Red Stalinist terror”. I know not to expect anything less than squeamish Anglo academics, but instances where Beevor has the gall to suggest Ukrainian collaborators took part in the Holocaust “perhaps as a reactionary to Soviet persecution in the 1930s” (without any sources cited for such a claim!) speaks to a perverse inveterate reaction against communism that I find doubly distasteful when discussing the crimes of a profoundly anti-communist regime like the Nazis.
dimitribelgium's review against another edition
3.0
Grossman is an engaging writer, especially considering his editorial circumstances, but he's let down a bit by his subject: during the Retreat and Stalingrad, he seems to have much more time to collect anecdotes & have more potential interviewees at hand than once the Red Army picks up speed to the Fascist Lair. Also, anecdotes. Some are so minute as to barely fill a short paragraph, others feel generic for those readers versed in Eastern Front books - meaning his stuff's so good it gets recycled again and again. By Beevor himself as well, occasionally, to bring [b:Berlin. The Downfall, 1945|2805452|Berlin. The Downfall, 1945|Antony Beevor|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1335378713s/2805452.jpg|300328] to life.
solaireastora's review against another edition
5.0
Incredible story of the Eastern Front told through the notes of a journalist - focusing on the human tragedies of the war.
caoimhinog's review against another edition
5.0
A real tour de force, unflinching in its depiction of the German invasion of Russia in 1941 and the Soviet fightback from 1943 onwards. Grossman gives a considered, personal and ultimately one of the most captivating accounts of life inside the Soviet Union during the Second World War and the defining conflict of the war. His ability to give you the big picture as well as the human cost of this brutal conflict makes him unique. A must read for anyone interested in the Second World War.
miker1964's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely stunning book. Possibly my favourite of 2011.
stanley_nolan_blog's review against another edition
3.0
A Writer (and Two Editors) at War
He collapses from nervous exhaustion. Moscow 1945, June. The Ukrainian Jewish journalist, Vasily Grossman, was in Berlin from April to May. He saw the Reichstag in ruins and Brandenburg burned. Before, he covered Treblinka’s liberation, one of the first witnesses of Himmler’s scheme. Before that, he was crisscrossing the Volga to cover the tide of the war changing advantages in Stalingrad, from German to Soviet.
Grossman kept notebooks of many Eastern front highlights. In this monograph, historians Antony Beevor and Dr. Luba Vinogradova edited together and translated those notes. The biggest problem stems from this basic division: A Writer at War doesn’t know whether it’s a secondhand retelling of Grossman’s involvement and general happenings or a firsthand account of events enfolding real-time. Grossman’s notes read more like a laundry list than coherent story, which made Beevor/ Vinogradova’s job difficult—how much devoted to backstory, exposition, or actual translations from Grossman’s pen? The result is a mess that leaps from year to year before the last story can be internalized.
The notes nonetheless revealed many different facts and anecdotes that were new, or newly reminded, to me: American trucks and vehicles used en masse by Soviets; lack of uniqueness of violence against Jews, all deaths by Nazis were spun for Soviet propaganda; selfishness among Soviet leaders when battles were won, see: Stalingrad; Grossman’s awkward position of being a non-Communist party member, Ukrainian Jew alongside Russian goys; coming to terms with his mother’s death, who was deterred from leaving the German killing grounds until it was too late. The best chapter of the book, not coincidentally the part edited the least, was Grossman’s near-full article on discovering the Holocaust at Treblinka, it’s stories of horror and destruction against his own people.
Grossman’s power through writing was novelistic. He praised behaviors, emotions, the common soldier rather than cow-towing bombastic and egoistic leaders. The editors make it clear that if one were to want to read more of this Grossman, the best place to look is his novels, Life and Death and Forever Flowing.
He collapses from nervous exhaustion. Moscow 1945, June. The Ukrainian Jewish journalist, Vasily Grossman, was in Berlin from April to May. He saw the Reichstag in ruins and Brandenburg burned. Before, he covered Treblinka’s liberation, one of the first witnesses of Himmler’s scheme. Before that, he was crisscrossing the Volga to cover the tide of the war changing advantages in Stalingrad, from German to Soviet.
Grossman kept notebooks of many Eastern front highlights. In this monograph, historians Antony Beevor and Dr. Luba Vinogradova edited together and translated those notes. The biggest problem stems from this basic division: A Writer at War doesn’t know whether it’s a secondhand retelling of Grossman’s involvement and general happenings or a firsthand account of events enfolding real-time. Grossman’s notes read more like a laundry list than coherent story, which made Beevor/ Vinogradova’s job difficult—how much devoted to backstory, exposition, or actual translations from Grossman’s pen? The result is a mess that leaps from year to year before the last story can be internalized.
The notes nonetheless revealed many different facts and anecdotes that were new, or newly reminded, to me: American trucks and vehicles used en masse by Soviets; lack of uniqueness of violence against Jews, all deaths by Nazis were spun for Soviet propaganda; selfishness among Soviet leaders when battles were won, see: Stalingrad; Grossman’s awkward position of being a non-Communist party member, Ukrainian Jew alongside Russian goys; coming to terms with his mother’s death, who was deterred from leaving the German killing grounds until it was too late. The best chapter of the book, not coincidentally the part edited the least, was Grossman’s near-full article on discovering the Holocaust at Treblinka, it’s stories of horror and destruction against his own people.
Grossman’s power through writing was novelistic. He praised behaviors, emotions, the common soldier rather than cow-towing bombastic and egoistic leaders. The editors make it clear that if one were to want to read more of this Grossman, the best place to look is his novels, Life and Death and Forever Flowing.
bharat_ravi's review against another edition
5.0
This is a collection of wartime notes by Vasily Grossman.
Although this book is about WW2 history, it should not be read with the primary intention of having an exhaustive understanding of Soviet perspective of war. However, the style of writing (hopefully the translation has not altered it significantly) is entertaining and provides decent information about the history. While the author has provided a first hand description of wartime horrors, the notes are also sprinkled with humourous anectodes which makes reading this book an overall pleasant experience. The compilation and the contexts to the notes provided by Antony Beevor is adequate and excellent.
In short, this book is should be read for two reasons:
1. It provides a first hand and well-written account of Soviet perspective of WW2
2. It opens the reader up to other interesting works by Vasily Grossman.
Although this book is about WW2 history, it should not be read with the primary intention of having an exhaustive understanding of Soviet perspective of war. However, the style of writing (hopefully the translation has not altered it significantly) is entertaining and provides decent information about the history. While the author has provided a first hand description of wartime horrors, the notes are also sprinkled with humourous anectodes which makes reading this book an overall pleasant experience. The compilation and the contexts to the notes provided by Antony Beevor is adequate and excellent.
In short, this book is should be read for two reasons:
1. It provides a first hand and well-written account of Soviet perspective of WW2
2. It opens the reader up to other interesting works by Vasily Grossman.