Secondhand Time : The Last of the Soviets

from stillatim

I wasn't sure how much I would value this book, but it turns out: I value it immensely. Alexievich achieved at least two things here. First, she has written a tremendously sensitive book about otherwise despised human beings. Reading this should make it impossible for anyone to take seriously the...

from Ireadthereforeiam

This is a unique book- the collected voices of many Russians over many years. The Author has collected peoples' stories told in interviews. With her own voice edited out, it has resulted in a story of Russia and the former USSR that is very personal and very deep. I am struck of course by the vio...

from Wassilissa

Was für eine unglaublich tolle Dokumentation, die zudem erstklassig gelesen ist. Wenn das Buch nicht so todtraurig wäre, wäre es eigentlich perfekt... Die Geschichten der einzelnen Personen, ihre jeweils ganz eigenen Traumata, die Willkür und Grausamkeit und das wenige Schöne nehmen gefangen. Mir...

from byebyelibrary

Hands down the best book I have read this year. The Nobel committee knew what it was doing when it gave Svetlana Alexievich the literature prize. These monologues from ordinary citizens of the former Soviet Union are as compelling and dramatic and insightful as novel I have ever read. This is the...

from bkinetic

During the Soviet era I had wondered what life was like behind the iron curtain. Solzhenitsyn provided part of the picture but here Alexievich fills the canvas with a broad portrait of the lives of people from all walks of life. Overall it isn't pretty, especially the slow-motion horror of the St...