THE UNWOMANLY FACE OF WAR by Svetlana Alexievich.
Published by Random House LLC, New York, NY. Price $30.00. Available at Amazon, or through some bookstores.
By Larry Sterett
Contributing Editor
Translated from the Russian language by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, this 350-page plus hardbound volume won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Sub-titled “An Oral History of Women in World War II” the author interviewed literally hundreds of Russian woman to get their views on the second World War, and the part they played in it. The result is this sixteen-part award-winning history, unlike any other.
Beginning with what amounts to a two-part (From a Conversation with a Historian and A Human Being is Greater Than War) Introduction, this tome covers sixteen areas, or fields, from “I Don’t Want to Remember” to “Suddenly We Wanted to Live.”
Eight of these fields of area topics, are further divided into three subject related fields. Example: Under the topic “Mama, What’s a Papa?”, the sub topics are of Bathing Babies and of a Mama Who Looks Like a Papa, Of Little Red Riding Hood and the Joy of Meeting a Cat During the War, and Of the Silence of Those Who Could Now Speak.
Within each of these sub-topics are the individual women’s stories, varying in length from a single paragraph to several pages. Each story is headed by the name of the woman telling it, her military rank or occupation, and her duty position, if she had such. Thus, the comments may be by a Nurse, Underground Fighter, Engineer, Pilot, Medical Assistant, Army Surgeon. Priivate, Baker, Sergeant, Clerk, Sniper, Second Lieutenant, Postal Worker, Sergeant Major, Scout, Army Surgeon, First Lieutenant, Tankman [woman], Partisan, and the list goes on.
This is one of the most interesting books this reviewer has ever read on the second World War. Every country in wartime has had women involved, at least to some degree, but we seldom ever hear or learn details about the cruelty of the suppressors, the blood, etc. Shooting an enemy soldier is one thing, throwing an innocent child or baby under tank treads, or beating a baby to death against an iron pump is more than sadistic. The women in this tome tell it like it was eighty years ago. This tome is definitely worthy of having won the Nobel Prize for literature, and should be on the reference shelf of any person interested in that era.
