I finally finished a book. It was only 751 pages long though!!! I only recommend it 1) if you want to read all of William T. Vollmann (which may take a while) or 2) if you want to read about WWII way in depth starring characters that may or may not have existed (at least in relation to each other 3) if you love Shostakovich or want to listen to his music with a fictional guide to his life. (I know I really want to listen to Opus 110. I can’t say I really enjoyed this book, but I don’t think it was meant to be enjoyable at all. It was kind of horrible… but here are some passages anyway….
“My target shouldn’t be difficult to locate, they’d told me, because he quote lives in a fairytale ballet without human context end quote, so I floated in the direction which seemed most inhuman, proceeding rapidly eastward beneath what a nineteenth-century traveler has described as a pearl-grey, faintly blue sky which lent a luminous quality to everything except the pale green roofs, yes, I knew that, everything transparently grey, with lime trees painted on the stage backdrop.”
and
“As for the ring of invisibility, I’d already lost it. Well, in every mission something goes wrong. No doubt there’s a scientific explanation for that.”
Plus, thanks to my State of Georgia education I know next to nothing about WWII. This book helped, but of course I don’t know what it true and what is propaganda veiled as fiction veiled as truth. Vollmann has been known to be subversive. I should probably do some extra research. Yeah.
Love, Jessica
