Book- Life and Fate

Life and Fate is a big book...I mean BIG. Not only is it long, nearly 900 pages, but it is Russian long...with a cast that could rival War and Peace, it has dozens, if not 100s of characters. And all go by several Russian names, so it is tough to keep track of who is who, and what family are they from. AND, it is big thematically. Vasily Grossman encompasses all of life and all of fate, and also a lot of war and peace into this novel.

The main story of the novel is the defense of Stalingrad in World War II. But the characters are divided into many different units and families, so this main story is diffuse in many ways. But it illustrates the appalling conditions the defenders of Stalingrad dealt with. This battle was certainly one of the most decisive of the war, and with the USSR pushing back Hitler's Nazi forces, it left the Germans much weakened. Perhaps it was the lynch pin that won the war for the Allied Forces.

But the theme of the novel is much deeper. Grossman, who had been a pro-Communist writer was now deeply anti-Stalin. He recognized and illustrates in this work, that Stalin and Hitler were about the same. While still believing in many aspects of socialism and communism, he expresses the feeling that Stalin has betrayed the revolution that Lenin brought to life, and betrayed Russia also.

Some of the characters feel that betrayal personally, as they, loyal followers, are brought into the prisons themselves, and treated as enemies of the state. Many of these scenes are deeply disturbing as you can see the crushing blows of a despotic state.

Grossman also fully makes us see that by the USSR taking good people out of the fight against the Nazis, for petty or made up "political" crimes, Stalin was making it much harder to defend the Russian homeland against the Nazi invaders. In fact, it seems that Grossman is saying that this kind of arrest almost lost the war to the Nazis. But he also seems to conclude, what would be the difference...both leaders are the same, they do not allow for the individual rights of a man.

Life and Fate was a long read, and is not for the impatient. It is much like War and Peace in many ways. But Grossman's overall theme tops any individual's story line confusion. It is a big big book, with big ideas and a bigger heart. It is intellectual and sharp, but is written with an undeniable love of a homeland, and a despair as to where that homeland is heading.