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Naeem's Reviews > Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War
Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War
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Naeem's review
bookshelves: favorite-books-of-a-lifetime
Jul 24, 2007
bookshelves: favorite-books-of-a-lifetime
Read 3 times. Last read January 1, 2004.
I could not and still cannot read this book for more than 10 pages at a time. I put it down, wipe my tears, walk around the house a few times, and get back to it with some wariness. One of my friends/students once said to me, "Never, never teach a class on Afghanistan without this book." Or for that matter on war.
The love of a mother for her son (and sometimes daughter) has never, for me, been so strongly conveyed as in this book. The fear and idealism of the soldier never opened up so carefully, so delicately, so warmly, so precisely. The collective delusions of a society never conveyed so irresistibly as tides, as a gravity that pulls everyone to tragedy, to the inevitable implosion of one's naivete, towards one's desire to be find out that one is indeed a fool, a loving fool, but a fool.
That these are soviet soldiers speaking about their experience in Afghanistan brings home the significance of this book in elliptical ways. The indirectness of the blows Aleksievich delivers compound their deft, deadly, efficiency. Through the particular the universal speaks. And, as it speaks it carries itself to and through another particular. The Soviets and the USAers -- twins.
Read this book and be changed. Read it again and again be changed. Read it a third time and ask yourself if we do not discover our humanity by tragedy alone.
A good film to watch as a companion to this book: The Thin Red Line (1998)
The love of a mother for her son (and sometimes daughter) has never, for me, been so strongly conveyed as in this book. The fear and idealism of the soldier never opened up so carefully, so delicately, so warmly, so precisely. The collective delusions of a society never conveyed so irresistibly as tides, as a gravity that pulls everyone to tragedy, to the inevitable implosion of one's naivete, towards one's desire to be find out that one is indeed a fool, a loving fool, but a fool.
That these are soviet soldiers speaking about their experience in Afghanistan brings home the significance of this book in elliptical ways. The indirectness of the blows Aleksievich delivers compound their deft, deadly, efficiency. Through the particular the universal speaks. And, as it speaks it carries itself to and through another particular. The Soviets and the USAers -- twins.
Read this book and be changed. Read it again and again be changed. Read it a third time and ask yourself if we do not discover our humanity by tragedy alone.
A good film to watch as a companion to this book: The Thin Red Line (1998)
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
Finished Reading
Started Reading
January 1, 2004
–
Finished Reading
July 24, 2007
– Shelved
October 26, 2008
– Shelved as:
favorite-books-of-a-lifetime
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by
Noor
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Mar 09, 2019 01:44AM
Beautiful. We discover our humanity through tragedy alone. So beautiful.
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I too can only read one story at a time. I have read all of Alexievich's books, this the last one. I can honestly say that my respect and admiration for the Russian people has changed since reading her books. I only picked my first book "The unwomanly Face of War" because of the superb cover photograph. How lucky was that?
