City of Thieves: A Novel

"City of Thieves" is an extraordinary book. I was enthralled and engrossed from Page 1. While it is easy for a reader to over-praise what one feels in the moment about a book's high quality, in this case I am confident that Benioff's work will remain popular and important. In my opinion it ranks with some of the great anti-war novels: "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque; "Soldier of the Great War" by Mark Helprin; and "Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut (and others). Time will tell as to the lasting power of "City of Thieves."Lev is the primary character, 17 years old, small, emaciated and fearful, a sad but smart teen-age survivor of the early years of WWII in war-torn Leningrad. He is filled with negativity and self-pitying teen age complaints. Then into his life comes the Siege of Leningrad, which lasted 872 days. This story takes place during early stages of the Siege in the middle of the dead, unspeakably cold winter of 1941-42. Koyla, age 20, is Lev's unlikely sidekick, with Vika the heroine. The story is at once moving and funny, tragic and heart wrenching. How can any reader not be charmed by, touched by and completely enmeshed in this page-turner? The idiocy of war, with its horrors and despicable conduct by the Nazis, is driven home like a stiletto into your heart. It is also very funny.Structurally, for the story's sake, Koyla is Lev's alter-ego, his brave and fearless side, the man he always wished he were: handsome, tall, physically powerful, educated, imaginative, fearless, sophisticated, woman-knowledgeable, even arrogant and over-confident. Thus, Koyla is everything that Lev is not. Lev is full of fear, a nerd, greatly lacking self-confidence, pre-occupied with impossible sexual fantasies about girls (though completely inexperienced in real life) and glum to the extreme. In a sense toward the end, they become one person, heroic and admirable but with all aspects of their complete personalities intact.The play of one side of Lev against the other is skillfully acted out by both young men in the early moments of their friendship. They embark upon a "fantasy adventure" to locate one dozen eggs (and their souls) in ravaged, devastated, below-zero, enemy-encircled Leningrad and its German-held outskirts. There are no eggs in Leningrad, but they need to find the dozen eggs to satisfy a somewhat demented Russian officer, who will then grant them a pardon for their earlier transgressions, if they return in one week with the eggs - to be used for the wedding cake of the officer's daughter. Thus, the bulk of the story spans a period of approximately 7 days. This literary device is clever, and one quickly forgets that it is far-fetched. Benioff snags you hook, line and sinker.What keep Lev and Koyla going is their built-in personality conflict, their oh-so-Russian humor, and their resilience - to say nothing of a clear admiration of one for the other and the desire to satisfy the requirements of their "sentence." Each contributes equally to the story's progress and power. Vika, the young sharp shooter girl, becomes their erstwhile companion, as their often misfired attempts to reach their objective (the eggs) take them from one debacle to another. She is a most remarkably developed character. Please note that there is considerable sickening violence and some gruesome scenes along the way. This Troika of young Russian personalities embed themselves into your being, and you'll find, as I did, that you will be unable to put this book down. It's a 5.

I would never have dreamed that a story set during the WW II Siege of Leningrad could be as engaging and darkly humorous as this book, but the Author has done a fine job of bringing a diverse set of characters to life, two of whom have been given an impossible mission (find a dozen eggs!) in an unbearable situation (the Blockade of Leningrad, and its consequent famine).I have over a dozen books on the Siege of Leningrad (for a project I'm working on), and I have to say that the Author portrays the siege with accuracy, if not with full depth - in large part because the story is told from the viewpoint of Lev, a 17 year old boy. This doesn't give the reader an omniscient overview of "the big picture", but it certainly provides a very specific perspective on life in and around the city, and one well worth reading.It's an "impression" of life during the city, and I have to say that with one exception - Lev would have been much hungrier and weaker in real life - a fairly accurate one. Readers of "The 900 Days" will recognize the inspiration for a specific scene, (Hint: Beware of well fed men in a famine) but how the characters react to what happens makes the action their own. And what characters!The two main characters that carry the book deserve to be remembered as a classic pairing. Their interactions, observations and the journey they take on their absurd quest are one that I will remember for a very long time. Lev, the narrator, will remind most adult men of their own awkward youth. Wry, dry, frustrated and a little plodding, he is enormously sympathetic, while seemingly always in the process of doing a "Straight Man's Slow Burn" in a comedy routine. Kolya, an accidental Red Army deserter, is overly confident, irresistably charming and scatologically minded. Imagine a dirty minded Bugs Bunny come to life as a 6ft tall, Blond hair Blue eyed Russian and you're not too far off. By the end of the story, these two have formed a real bond and friendship - one that seems real, rather than forced for the sake of the story. The supporting characters are all given real weight - you feel that this really could have happened, and that these aren't just puppets the author is manipulating, but real people.Is it serious? Yes.Is it a war story? Yes.Is it funny? Yes.Is it a coming of age story? Yes.Is it historically accurate? Yes.It's simply got quite a lot to offer to any reader. I highly recommend it to both the general reading public and to WWII buffs.