![]() ![]() ![]() That would be a pity, for the book-banned by the Soviet government and smuggled out of Russia to be published in the West-gives a terrifying portrait not only of what the Soviets suffered during the German occupation and the war, but also of the political terror of the Stalin regime. Now I don't know if I want to try to get the book from the library or just forget it. Another problem was simply that there were so many characters, and the situation so complex that it was hard to follow the story line altogether. In addition, some local British dialects were used to represent the ordinary Russian soldiers (as opposed to the educated elite family who were the protagonists), and it was very difficult at times to understand what exactly they were saying. In many cases, the translator used British slang terms ("Give over!" for example) that may have been more or less correct but sounded horribly out of place. The main problem with the dramatization is that it is done in very British voices, which rather clashes with the Russian setting of the story. It is a kind of War and Peace for the Soviet era. Vasily Grossman's book was based on his experiences as a Jewish war correspondent on the Eastern Front, notably at Stalingrad, and also the first to report to the press on a Nazi death camp, Treblinka. This was a most disappointing dramatization of one of the major Russian novels of the 20th century. ![]()
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