What inspired me about this book of courage and humour in a planet gone mad by war was the imagery; vivid and surreal scenes that bring a hackneyed theme to life, and sets this novel apart from the pack.
Lev, the half Jew (properly, his father is the Jew, so that does not count, suitable?) and his Russian foil Kolya are released from a Russian jail in the besieged city of Leningrad for the duration of WWII to come across scarce eggs for the Colonel, whose daughter is finding married and would so need a cake in this city exactly where cannibalism has taken hold of the significantly less fortunate. Our Daring Duo go more than to the German-occupied side on their egg-hunt and encounter a myriad of adventures, some hair-raising, other folks side-splitting, as they discover their treasure and bring it back to their Colonel, who has forgotten all about the incident in the meantime and has develop into the beneficiary of a raft of smuggled goodies, far exceeding eggs, for his beloved daughter's wedding. So substantially for the story - sounds enjoy one of these old westerns, eh?
Now for the photos that stuck with me: a dead German floating more than the starving city in his parachute, killed by the cold alternatively of bullets, the nicely-fed Colonel's daughter skating on the Neva when her city starves, the dying boy guarding his solitary chicken whilst his grandfather's frozen copse reposes subsequent to him, the human sausage factory for these who aspire for a bit of "meat" throughout the siege, Kolya and Sonya receiving sex and generating loud conversation amidst a area complete of starving refugees, dogs strapped with explosives and applied as mines against the advancing German tanks. Those are but a sample.
The ebullient Kolya and the gangly Lev are good foils in spite of their physical and psychological variations. For all his gregariousness, we also find that Kolya is attempting to create the Fantastic Russian Novel in snatches for the duration of breaks on their quest, writing furiously with a pencil stub on scraps of paper. The ruthless sniper, Vika, a young lady who dresses love a man to hide from the Germans, supplies the love interest for the restrained Lev in approaches that even surprise him. The burly Abendroth, the German Einsaztkommando (an elite group of killers deadlier than the Waffen SS), is the epitome of an arch villain, swilling schnapps, playing chess, seeing through our heroes' guises, and killing individuals at random.
When the ending was predictable, some of the lines stuck with me lengthy following I completed the book, etching the characters indelibly in my thoughts: Kolya, who stumbles on a farmhouse with 4 wholesome Russian ladies kept as sex slaves for the invaders, recounts the episode as, "my balls had been ringing enjoy a pair of dumbbells," when Lev, seeing his raunchier buddy blissfully creating out with an old girlfriend, remarks "the loneliest sound in the globe is other folks generating love."
And as for the author, who appears to have borrowed a lot of the story from his grandfather, he follows Grandpa's suggestions whilst items do not make sense and "tends to make it up" for the reader, hence providing us a memorable read.
Shane Joseph is the author of 3 novels and a collection of brief stories. His perform Right after the Flood won the ideal futuristic/fantasy novel award at the Canadian Christian Writing Awards in 2010. His brief fiction has appeared in international literary journals and anthologies. His most recent novel The Ulysses Man has just been released. For specifics see http://www.shanejoseph.com
