Svetlana Alexievich, Trans. by Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky
PositiveThe Financial Times...a revelation; although we now know a lot more about the war, Alexievich’s text gives us precious details of the kind that breathe life into history ... As well as showing her readers the war through women’s eyes, Alexievich gives us an idea of how the army women were perceived by society, during the war and afterwards ... If one were to believe the book, all its subjects went to war as volunteers. Yet we now know that the majority of women soldiers received call-up notices and had no choice. Another silence worries me more. The phenomenon of sexual harassment was extremely common in the Red Army during the war, and numerous testimonies are now available. This subject comes up only once in Alexievich’s book ... This is a book about emotions as much as it is about facts. It is not a historical document in the accepted sense: there are few dates or places mentioned, and often the speakers are not identified. And yet ultimately, which historical documents are more important than this? These voices, thanks to Alexievich, have themselves become part of history.
