The Siege: A Novel
Called "elegantly, starkly beautiful" by The New York Times Book Review, The Siege is Helen Dunmore's masterpiece. Her canvas is monumental -- the Nazis' 1941 winter siege on Leningrad that killed six hundred thousand -- but her focus is heartrendingly intimate. One family, the Levins, fights to stay alive in their small apartment, held together by the unlikely courage and resourcefulness of twenty-two-year-old Anna. Though she dreams of an artist's life, she must instead forage for food in the ever more desperate city and watch her little brother grow cruelly thin. Their father, a blacklisted writer who once advocated a robust life of the mind, withers in spirit and body. At such brutal times everything is tested. And yet Dunmore's inspiring story shows that even then, the triumph of the human heart is that love need not fall away. "The novel's imaginative richness," writes The Washington Post, "lies in this implicit question: In dire physical circumstances, is it possible to have an inner life? The answer seems to be that no survival is possible without one." Amid the turmoil of the siege, the unimaginable happens -- two people enter the Levins' frozen home and bring a kind of romance where before there was only bare survival. A sensitive young doctor becomes Anna's devoted partner, and her father is allowed a transcendent final episode with a mysterious woman from his past. The Siege marks an exciting new phase in a brilliant career, observed Publishers Weekly in a starred review: "Dunmore has built a sizable audience ... but this book should lift her to another level of literary prominence." "Dunmore's ... novel ... is an intimate record of an extraordinary human disaster ... a moving story of personal triumph and public tragedy." -- Laura Ciolkowski, San Francisco Chronicle "In Helen Dunmore's hands, this epic subject assumes a lyrical honesty that sometimes wrenches but more often lifts the spirit." -- Frances Taliaferro, The Washington Post "Dunmore unravels the tangle of suffering, war, and base emotions to produce a story woven with love ... Extraordinary." -- Barbara Conaty, Library Journal (starred review)
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Community Reviews
My thoughts about the first 1/3 of this:
-I am bored out of my skull.
-Why is this so slooooooooow? Why is everything so disjointed? Why am I punishing myself right now?
-Is the writing actually a bit pretty or am I grasping at straws to justify why I AM STILL READING THIS BORING BOOK?
-I'm too stubborn to DNF a book. Or am I? Hmm...
-I don't care about any of these characters.
-Is it normal to need caffeine just to pick up a book?
My thoughts about the last 2/3 of this:
-Huh. This is actually picking up a little bit. Color me surprised!
-All this talk about lack of food is making me hungry.
-It was -9° F outside this morning. I'm imagining that being the temperature indoors. For months on end. While having nothing to eat each day except a couple small pieces of bread and "tea" that insists of boiled water and a pinch of salt.
-The story and circumstances are devastating, but I still don't feel connected to the characters. I feel like everything Anna has done has been admirable and courageous, yet I still feel nothing towards her as a character. If she were to suddenly die, I wouldn't feel anything. This goes for all the other characters in the book as well. This is the most disappointing feeling.
-Interesting topic. Interesting setting. I've learned a few things about 1941 Leningrad that I didn't know previously, so there are points for that. It was interesting to know what went into having to get food and supplies during this time and truly terrible to glimpse what civilians (young and old and everyone in between) had to endure because of the war. It's something that seems unfathomable to imagine. It's even worse to think that for the people who endured it, it was something unfathomable to them as well before it actually struck and became their reality.
I'm glad I stuck with this because it did get better, but the incredibly slow start and the lack of character connection are keeping this at mid-level for me. This is the first book I've read this year where it felt like a chore to pick up at times.
3 Stars
-I am bored out of my skull.
-Why is this so slooooooooow? Why is everything so disjointed? Why am I punishing myself right now?
-Is the writing actually a bit pretty or am I grasping at straws to justify why I AM STILL READING THIS BORING BOOK?
-I'm too stubborn to DNF a book. Or am I? Hmm...
-I don't care about any of these characters.
-Is it normal to need caffeine just to pick up a book?
My thoughts about the last 2/3 of this:
-Huh. This is actually picking up a little bit. Color me surprised!
-All this talk about lack of food is making me hungry.
-It was -9° F outside this morning. I'm imagining that being the temperature indoors. For months on end. While having nothing to eat each day except a couple small pieces of bread and "tea" that insists of boiled water and a pinch of salt.
-The story and circumstances are devastating, but I still don't feel connected to the characters. I feel like everything Anna has done has been admirable and courageous, yet I still feel nothing towards her as a character. If she were to suddenly die, I wouldn't feel anything. This goes for all the other characters in the book as well. This is the most disappointing feeling.
-Interesting topic. Interesting setting. I've learned a few things about 1941 Leningrad that I didn't know previously, so there are points for that. It was interesting to know what went into having to get food and supplies during this time and truly terrible to glimpse what civilians (young and old and everyone in between) had to endure because of the war. It's something that seems unfathomable to imagine. It's even worse to think that for the people who endured it, it was something unfathomable to them as well before it actually struck and became their reality.
I'm glad I stuck with this because it did get better, but the incredibly slow start and the lack of character connection are keeping this at mid-level for me. This is the first book I've read this year where it felt like a chore to pick up at times.
3 Stars
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