City of Thieves: A Novel (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 2008; vuoden 2008 painos)

Ein ungewöhnlicher Auftrag schweißt den 17-jährigen Lew, den schüchternen Sohn eines während Stalins Säuberungsaktionen umgekommenen Intellektuellen, und den draufgängerischem Frauenschwarm Kolja, einen desertierten Rotarmisten, zusammen. Im belagerten Leningrad sollen sie während des Hungerwinters 1941/42 Eier für die Hochzeit der Tochter eines Generals auftreiben.

Wenngleich die eigentliche Handlung unrealistisch erscheint und die Erzählung manchmal konstruiert wirkt, hat Benioff einen spannenden Abenteuerroman geschrieben. Er überzeugt mit den lebensnahen Schilderungen des belagerten Leningrads ebenso wie mit der Darstellung des von Partisanen und Wehrmacht umkämpften Umlands im Kriegswinter 191/42. Der Roman ist höhepunktreich und bietet ein fesselndes Auf- und Ab. Daneben überzeugt Benioff aber auch in den leiseren Passagen seines Werks, in dem er auf die fragile Beziehung zwischen dem heranwachsenden Lew und dem extrovertierten Kolja eingeht. Benioff vermischt die Genres, sodass "Stadt der Diebe" vordergründig zwar Abenteuer- und Kriegsroman ist, daneben aber auch an Buddy-Movies und Entwicklungsromane erinnert. ( )

The writing of this quick read is quite good. The tale it tells is rather gruesome and the characters talk rather crudely about women, yet it is a poignant story that stayed with me.
Two men are given a reprieve from their imminent death if they can procure a dozen eggs within a week. They go on quite the adventure to fulfill the request.
I am not sure how much is true and how much is imagination, but the prologue to the story sets it up really well. Note: if you are one of those book sinners who reads the final chapter first, I would say the prologue is all you need to read to set your mind at ease.
Despite the gruesome episodes and crass talk, the book is witty and even somewhat enjoyable to read (as much as a WWII story can be). ( )

City of Thieves is difficult to categorize. A sort of adventure/coming of age/historical fiction book set in Leningrad during the Nazi invasion in the 2nd world war. It describes the conditions at the time, but then puts the protagonist through a series of highly unlikely "trials" to get his release from jail which sometimes can be graphic to get the golden fleece, a dozen eggs for a wedding cake. It says its funny, and sometimes the interaction between the 2 main characters can be amusing, but funny - not so much. ( )

Fantastic! I really needed to read something this good after the disappointing "Prince of Tides". Liv & Kolya are a great team and their adventures around St. Pertersburg during WWII make for a great read. Benioff knows how to tell a story. I'm happy Liv gets the girl. 5 stars. ( )

False starts

(1) He uses the ‘as if’ simile all the time. What is the point of this odious practice and from where did it spring? Is it because writers think we are idiots or because they don’t have the skill to write it in another way? This one is p. 2 of the story proper and really gave me the pip:


That time of year the sun lingers in the sky for only six hours, scurrying from hoizon to horizon as if spooked.


That piece of smartarsery almost had me put the book on the ‘moving along right now shelf’. It doesn’t ring a chord, it has the ‘as if’, and I object to the juxtaposition of the words ‘lingers’ and ‘scurrying’.

Page two and I’m in a bad mood already, but something keeps the book in my hand.

(2) He pretends that this is based on the true story of his grandfather. I know I have put this in a way the author would deny, but I find it dubious practice to say the least to give the lead character the same name as the writer’s. He is on record as saying:

It’s a great hook, your “grandfather,” but isn’t it a bit misleading?
[My publishers] said, “You can be really coy about it, just don’t lie.” But I want to be up-front about it. I sent an e-mail to my editor when the James Frey scandal broke, saying, “I promise I’m never going to send you anything that’s not a complete work of fiction.” NYMag.com

I have no idea what that is supposed to mean, it seems to me, it lies in the same vein as the Frey book. Perhaps, this being his second novel, he was overanxious to make sure it sold. If this is ‘upfront’, after the event, after it has been purchased and reviewed and read, to make this statement, then Frey was no less upfront, though he had to be dragged there.’Upfront’ would have been a clear explanation on the book itself. Back cover, for example.

The fact is that not only simple readers, but professional reviewers, considered this book to be the work of a chap writing about his grandfather, and since the made-up writer in the book is called David, has the same surname and has the same occupation, this is not surprising. I checked a few of the reviews of which small parts were blurbs for the cover of the edition I read, and at least two of them – Publishers Weekly, no less, and Booklist Online, - both expressed the ‘fact’ that this was a book written by an author about his grandfather. If the author was intending the start of this book to be no more than a wanky literary artifice, both he and his editors have miserably failed.

And there is this, from the NYT review:


Who knows. In a recent interview, Benioff said the novel’s first chapter was pure invention — that all four of his grandparents were born in the United States. But in the bound galleys of the novel he thanked his grandfather for his “patience with my late-night phone calls” about the blockade. The final version of the book doesn’t carry that acknowledgment. What gives?


What gives, indeed. I am really very uneasy about what the author did here and why. I am also curious as to why nobody seems to have taken the trouble to do the simple checks that would establish the truth of the matter.

So far that is one false start each, mine and the author’s.

Let’s try again.

The fact is that none of this really matters. What matters is that this is a five star read. I was hoping Chabon might have commented on it somewhere as it is a story, and that, if you look at the books people seem to want to read, is still what counts. There is a modern trend, and undoubtedly there is a cognoscenti on goodreads which supports this, to turn one’s nose up at the story. One not only can write a novel without a story, but one should. A story line is passe. Characters are passe. It’s all about technique and doing clever shit with words. This was a NY Times Bestseller, and without particularly understanding what that means, I guess it is in the august company of Harry Potter, Hunger Games, the Dragon Tattoo – books which tell stories. Not only that, it is told with an economy of style – a mere 250 pages or so – without feeling like he’s saving his words up for the next book. Both story and execution – ‘as ifs’ aside – are impeccable. This is unputdownable – I read the entire book while being rather sick for the last day – utterly entertaining, whilst talking about the period in the history of the world which for rich white folk is their shame unlike any other.

World War Two is not a story, it is an infinite number of stories that will never end. I’ve listened to any number of them straight from the horses’ mouths. The Australian spending years in the horrors of Changi. The Pole who escaped a concentration camp leading a group of children not much younger than he was to safety. The American physicist who started life as a Jewish boy escaping France and landing on his own in the US mid-war. The Pole who walked to St Petersburg to lend support. The thing all the stories relentlessly have in common is that they can’t really, properly tell their story. It’s the shared shame – or shame that one should be feeling shame – it is the luck that is impossible ever to celebrate or talk about with a smile on one’s face. So a story like this, just a story, a made-up piece of fiction coming out of the head of a chap who hopes it’ll become a NYT bestseller, in my opinion becomes part of this history of that period. It says stuff you aren’t going to get from history books, you aren’t going to get from biographies, you aren’t going to get from sitting next to a survivor of this period, holding their hand and saying ‘tell me’.
( )