Show Notes They said it couldn’t be done; they said it was too much work; they say it was simply too much Grossman. (The ‘they’ here is Matt and Cameron, to be clear). This week, more than 7 months after starting their Life and Fate series, Matt and Cameron proved them (us) wrong by covering Chapters 49 through 61 of Part 3. It’s time to say goodbye to characters we’ve followed across nearly 900 pages (or around 1700 pages if you also read Stalingrad), with many of them going out on notes both painful and poignant. But the novel’s end does not imply the end of Grossman’s ch ..read more

This post, covering Part 3, Chapter 61 is part of The Slavic Literature Pod’s chapter a day read along of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. Learn more about our project here. How do you end a novel like Life and Fate? In one sense, the novel never truly ends. The questions it poses still linger and continue to pester us with their relevance even today ..read more

This post, covering Part 3, Chapter 60 is part of The Slavic Literature Pod’s chapter a day read along of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. Learn more about our project here. In Grossman’s penultimate chapter to Life and Fate, he explores some of the lingering questions of the novel.  Looking over the ruins of her home city, Alexandra Vladimirovna wonders “was it really here that she had bought a length of material for a coat or a watch as a birthday present for Marusya? Had she really come here with Seryozha and got him a pair of skates in the sports department on the first floor?” (p. 8 ..read more

This post, covering Part 3, Chapter 58 is part of The Slavic Literature Pod’s chapter a day read along of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. Learn more about our project here. Today, Grossman poses the question of “what next?” for a handful of our characters. Most notably, Spiridonov’s abandonment of the power station is brought to a conclusion. The bureau of the obkom ruled that “He was to leave Stalingrad and become the director of a small, peat-burning power station in the Urals. It wasn’t such a very terrible punishment; he could have been put on trial,” (p. 848). Because of his association ..read more

This post, covering Part 3, Chapter 56 is part of The Slavic Literature Pod’s chapter a day read along of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. Learn more about our project here. Shortly after his interrogation, Krymov’s thinking starts to reach its apotheosis. Suddenly the years of seemingly impossible confessions start to make sense. Krymov thinks that “The hide was being flayed off the still living body of the Revolution so that a new age could slip into it; as for the red, bloody meat, the steaming innards — they were being thrown onto the scrapheap. The new age needed only the hide of the Rev ..read more

This post, covering Part 3, Chapter 55 is part of The Slavic Literature Pod’s chapter a day read along of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. Learn more about our project here. We end Viktor Shtrum’s story in Life and Fate at one of his lowest moments, playing a part in sending two likely innocent men to an uncertain fate. It’s a betrayal not only of them, but also one of his own values.  “And now he too had betrayed people,” Viktor thinks. “He was ashamed of himself; he despised himself. The house he lived in, its light and warmth, had crumbled away; nothing was left but dry quicksand.”&nb ..read more

This post, covering Part 3, Chapter 54 is part of The Slavic Literature Pod’s chapter a day read along of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. Learn more about our project here. There was a man — a Soviet citizen, celebrated for his achievements — who was summoned into a Party meeting under false pretenses. He believed he was there to talk about something related to his work. Upon arrival, though, he learned that a letter had been drafted for him; he only needed to sign it. It was nothing major, simply a denunciation of men arrested as part of an assassination. And, to his lasting shame, he puts ..read more

This post, covering Part 3, Chapter 53 is part of The Slavic Literature Pod’s chapter a day read along of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. Learn more about our project here. Viktor’s life is back in order. Well, it’s back in order enough. He finally has the resources and staff he needs to fully explore his wor;  he’s been embraced by the Soviet state; he can pay his bills without eyeing his family’s dwindling savings.  There is, though, one last major piece: Maria Ivanovna Sokolova. His emotional affair is, he believes, wraps. Sokolov already knows the truth, but he’s too ill to com ..read more

This post, covering Part 3, Chapter 52 is part of The Slavic Literature Pod’s chapter a day read along of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. Learn more about our project here. As Novikov goes to his unknown fate, Viktor deals with his continuing life. He returns to the institute and practically finds a new world. His colleagues again greet him warmly; he becomes personal friends with leadership; and his stalled staffing issues are quickly resolved. The USSR even grants him a boon most office workers would kill for today: rarely wasting him time in meetings.  But more than just living adequ ..read more

This post, covering Part 3, Chapter 50 is part of The Slavic Literature Pod’s chapter a day read along of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. Learn more about our project here. Finally nearing his moment of triumph, Novikov receives Yegenia’s letter. He does not take the news well.  “He walked up and down the room,” the narrator tells us, amid a stiflingly claustrophobic description of Novikov’s mood. “He looked again at the letter on his desk. It was like a white, sloughed-off skin that a viper had just crawled out of. He put his hands to his chest and sides. The viper wasn’t there. It mus ..read more