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Sunday, January 23, 2011

R., the Book's Sponsor, Comments on City of Thieves


I'm not really interested in Blogging myself, but I have no objection to your
putting one up about our book group. I did check it out, however, just because I had sponsored the last book, so I felt more of an obligation. I was really more interested in letting YOU know what happened at the meeting. The blog (and by extension--you) did not really capture the jist of the evening. Even though the book itself was considered a 'lightweight' read (even though enjoyable)--it was a foil for an interesting discussion about the Russian people in general and the
Russian people in this specific situation (the Leningrad siege). The author
researched this very carefully and all of the characters and situations were
based on his findings. Benioff had read many diaries of the survivors of this war--and so got a lot of first-hand information. 

City of Thieves...


Sick with the stomach THING attacking Brooklynites...extreme stomach emptying...lucky to have a rather mild version...but alas missed Book Group meeting.
L. sent this summary:  "People thought book was good but it was an adventure story."  In the word BUT lies the discussion...Can an adventure story be literature?  Hmmm.  Huck Finn?  Odyssey?  Perhaps someone will flesh out this discussion to make clear what else made this less than a MUST READ...I'll post any  new comments I receive.