PositiveThe New York TimesThe story of Life and Fate, as told in Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century by Alexandra Popoff, a former Soviet journalist, is gripping. Equally revealing is the rest of Grossman’s biography ... As told by Popoff, the stories behind Grossman’s stories, particularly of censors’ efforts to alter and limit them, are fascinating ... Popoff’s book has its flaws: Its writing can be labored and she too often assumes that characters in Grossman’s novels and stories can be considered stand-ins for him. But her emphasis on what she calls \'the connection between totalitarian regimes and political ignorance\' not only applies to Soviet Russia but constitutes a warning for the United States
