At first, when I picked up this book, I really didn't know what to expect from this book.. I thought this was going be another mundane read.. 'Cause the book deals more with the oppression in Russia during World War II..
As soon as I went past Chapter I.. Man.. I knew I was going to be in for a treat!
The read really started with aplomb. In the beginning, the story delves in a Jewish protagonist's predicaments in the face of an incoming war. Overall, I really like how the story begins. At first, it talks about the protagonist's, Lev's first brush of the war with a company of friends. Deeper into the story, we only get to know that Lev's friends were actually from the same flat as him. They managed to make a camp at the rooftop or rather, at the top of the building. They volunteered as firefighters or as an army for their country in their area.
In the midst of the beginning of the story, they discovered a German soldier in a parachute who had fallen from the sky. It turned out then that fortunately, the German had in fact died during the fall due to the extremely cold weather in Leningrad. From this, the story then quickly moves on to the imprisonment of Lev.
It then quickly talks about Lev being imprisoned in a dark prison, in total solitary. Lev, who couldn't sleep in his cell, only had his thoughts to entertain him. Next, he heard some shuffling outside his cell's door, he knew that the guards had came over to deliver his sentence. On the contrary, it turned out that in fact, they wanted to insert a new prisoner in the same cell as him. He only managed to catch a glimpse of the new prisoner before the cell's gate closed on them.
I actually like how the story turns out later. At first, as it starts with the introduction of a group of youngsters serving as army for Russia, I thought it is about the survival of a bunch of kids during a war, although in retrospect, I knew it was about two persons' quest for a dozen of eggs during a city's siege. I didn't really know how the story would pan out. I didn't know later it would talk about, albeit briefly, the philosophical insights of a teenage boy in a dark cell, his last thoughts before his final execution. I was quite surprised by that, honestly.
After all these surprises, I was actually quite glad and content with the introduction of Kolya, Lev's companion in their quest for those eggs in the command of a colonel for making of the colonel's daughter's wedding cake (Huh? Lol..). I really enjoyed his company, his musings and his witty banter with Lev. He is indeed a wonderful character. I would definitely consider it worthy to listen to Kolya's rambling all day long, if given the chance. I wouldn't mind it really. Without any spoilers, I was pretty amused with Kolya's reference to a book. Hmmm..
And not forgetting the cute Vika of course..
Below are some excerpt from the book that I really like, so enjoy!:
"He looked at me just as the guards left, shutting the cell door and bolting it from the outside, taking their light with them. His face was the last thing I saw before the darkness resumed, so it's stuck in my mind: the high Cossack cheekbones, the amused twist of the lips, the hay-bound hair, the eyes blue enough to please any Aryan bride."
"He tossed his pad of paper on the desk and I could see that he hadn't been taking notes, as I'd thought, but simply drawing X's, over and over again, till the entire sheet of paper was covered with them. For some reason this frightened me more than his uniform or his brawler's face. A man who drew pictures of tits or dogs seemed like a man I could understand. But a man who drew nothing but X's?"
"We stood on the sidewalk, beneath a powerless streetlamp cobwebbed with hoarfrost, the great guns firing to the south, the moon veiled by muslin clouds, listening until the final note. When it ended, something seemed wrong: the performance was too good to go unacknowledged, the performer too skilled to accept no applause. For a long moment we were silent, staring up at the dark windows. Finally, when it seemed respectful to move again, we resumed our march."
"He tugged me down from the hill of rubble and I was too weak to resist, too tired for grief or anger or defiance. I wanted to be warm. I wanted to eat. We walked away from the Kirov's remnants and I could not hear my footsteps. I had become a phantom. There was no one left in the city who knew my full name. I felt no great misery for myself, just a kind of dull curiosity that I still seemed to be alive, my exhalations still visible in the moonlight, this son of Cossacks still marching beside me, looking at me from time to time to make sure I kept moving checking the night sky for bombers."
"I never understood people who said their greatest fear was public speaking, or spiders, or any of the other minor terrors. How could you fear any thing more than death? Everything else offered moments of escape: a paralyzed man could still read Dickens; a man in the grips of dementia might have flashes of the most absurd beauty."
"I was sitting on a window ledge watching her and trying to make sure she didn't know I was watching her. She had stripped off her coveralls to let them dry. She wore a heavy wool woodcutter's shirt that once belonged to a man twice her size and two pairs of long underwear. Unlike most redheads, she didn't have a single freckle. She worried at her upper lip with the bottom row of her crooked little teeth. I couldn't stop looking at her. She was no man's idea of a pinup girl-underfed as she was, looking like she'd spent the last week sleeping in the forest-but I wanted to see her naked. I wanted to unbutton the woodcutter's shirt, toss it aside, and lick her pale belly, strip off the long underwear and kiss her thin thighs."
"Talent must be a fanatical mistress. She's beautiful; when you're with her, people watch you, they notice. But she bangs on your door at odd hours, and she disappears for long stretches, and she has no patience for the rest of your existence: your wife, your children, your friends. She is the most thrilling evening of your week, but some day she will leave you for good. One night, after she's been gone for years, you will see her on the arm of a younger man, and she will pretend not to recognize you."
