Skip to main content

Review: Life and Fate


Life and Fate
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



Meant to be one of these 'classics' which become a must read for everyone but for me it's the same as Dostoyevski's The Brother's Karamazov - unreadable. There must be something about Russian literature that causes me to become soporific. I just can't get into this. I've ploughed through a third of this but have finally closed the pages. I can't become caring about the characters, the plot has become meaningless. Perhaps I've committed some heresy with this book but I find it just turgid and cold.



View all my reviews

Comments

  1. Anonymous14 February 2012 at 15:57

    Yes, Russian lit is definitely an acquired taste. Personally, I never really got into Dostoevsky after college (or any other Russian prose author, really), though I remember enjoying Notes from Underground immensely.

    On the other hand, Russian philosophy is amazing. Mikhail Bakhtin was one of my professor's favourites during college, and that rubbed off on me a bit. And Nikolai Berdyaev's penetrating insights into the nature of religion really struck home for me, and (along with Kierkegaard and Samuel Johnson) he was one of my primary influences for 'rediscovering' the Anglican tradition after my secular wanderings (even though he was Eastern Orthodox).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris Hall14 February 2012 at 20:28

    Thanks for posting Matthew. Hopefully one day I will acquire a taste for such literature.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Spammers, trolls and blatantly offensive posts will be summarily deleted. My blog, my rules. Otherwise comment away!

Popular posts from this blog

The Upper Rooms

We often think of the 'upper room' as being the place where Jesus and the Disciples held the Last Supper but the Bible has many more 'upper rooms'.
Post a Comment
Read more

Sound familiar?

Watching the BBC interview of Adele by Graham Norton tonight and Adele sang one of the new tracks off her forthcoming album. The track was called A Million Years Ago. Listening to it reminded me of a different song by someone else. You know where you almost recognise a tune but get lost with the words, yet it's the words which are the key! Eventually it came to me, El Shaddai by Michael Card, famously sung by Amy Grant. It's a song that I occasionally play during worship. Have a listen. What do you think?
Post a Comment
Read more

Distant Pics of St Michael's Abbey

Seems that every Saturday when I take Charlie for a walk we stop and look at the sheep, and St Michael's Abbey at Farnborough. Well I say 'we' but I really mean me. Charlie is far too busy rooting round in the undergrowth for something to eat. Met a man who was working on the boundary fence from the inside. He was repairing a 'doorway' that had been cut in the mesh fence. Was probably going to be used to enable something of a reasonable size to be pilfered from somewhere in the monastery grounds, or even a sheep. Pray for the monastery, Abbey, those who have their vocation there and those who labour in support. And also pray for those who vandalise and steal from this wonderful place. The guided tours they do on a Friday are worth it as well and is also an opportunity for them to be supported. Monastery with crooked cross and dome of the Abbey Baa! Someone's been at it with the filters again
Post a Comment
Read more