jensen1's reviews
427 reviews

I received an advanced reader copy of "The Stalin Affair" from Henry Holt publishing's Goodreads giveaway. Thanks very much for the opportunity to review this book!

I had mixed reactions while reading this book on the tumultuous relationship between Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill. The writing itself is very narrative which can be difficult to achieve while writing on historical subjects. Giles Milton had no issue keeping my interest and threw in enough jaw-dropping statistics and quotes to keep me flipping the page.

That said, I am a little confused on the goal of this book. It waffles back and forth from assuming the reader knows too much and then also majorly simplifying other parts. I know mainstream history books are often simplified (for good reason!) for readability and understanding. However, it seemed to come down somewhere in the middle. It seems as though those who may have studied historical topics or those who have read a good amount of history books would find it glaringly simplified - that is, I can't say I'm ultra-familiar with the "wooing" of Stalin by Churchill and Roosevelt, but I can recognize that the main individuals mentioned in this book are contained to only a handful. The battles and meetings of the war are simplified quickly and are definitely in the background - though it is a World War II book, there is not much about the war itself really explained or captured other than the actions of the major players' thoughts and impressions of each other.

If, therefore, I can understand that major parts of the war and many people were left out of the book (again, not necessarily a critique), then the assumption would be that this is for readers that may not have read much about these topics before - this is great and I support that wholeheartedly! The issue I have, though, is the lack of background offered for newer readers to understand and contextualize what is happening in the book. There is hardly any mention of the beginning of the war, what the British people went through that made Churchill so desperate for an ally in the USSR and the United States, where Stalin came from and the Soviet background (for example, it's not mentioned that Leningrad was and has been returned to the name St. Petersburg, which is important for modern readers to know, imo), the American people's love of Roosevelt and the Depression/New Deal, the reasons for US wishes to remain out of the war until Pearl Harbor, the reason why Britain had control over the Iranian railways, hardly anything about the war in the Pacific... the list could go on. 

Overall, it was a pleasant read, and I did learn a fair amount from Milton's book. However, I do think there was an oversimplification of the facts and circumstances that may lead to dissatisfaction from both historians and newer history readers alike.

Archibald Gracie’s account of the Titanic sinking was brief but unbelievable- he went down with the ship and managed to swim up to the surface to a lifeboat. It was well told, but his adamant statement that Titanic didn’t split in half highlights just how eye witness and personal accounts can vary from person to person. 

The inquiry interviews of the others, though unexpected, were fascinating. The wealthy woman who cried about losing her nightgown while refusing to go back to help potential survivors really shows the rich don’t change, even in 110 years.

The consistent return to rape as a plot point really didn’t work for me