Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye. This week, all three samples are ones that I’ve had for ages on my Kindle.
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
Summary: The story of Soviet society told through the fate of a single family, the Shaposhnikovs. As the battle of Stalingrad looms, Grossman’s characters must work out their destinies in a world torn apart by ideological tyranny and war.
I’m thinking: Maybe. Everything about it appeals except the 864 pages. Do I have the stamina…?
A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous
Summary: For eight weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman kept a daily record of life in her apartment building. The anonymous author depicts her fellow Berliners in all their humanity as well as their cravenness, corrupted first by hunger and then by the Russians.
I’m thinking: Yes.
Up the Junction by Nell Dunn
Summary: First published in 1963, Dunn writes about the lives of working-class women in London and the industrial slums of Battersea – clip-joint hustles, petty thieving, candid sexual encounters, casual birth and casual death.
I’m thinking: Yes.
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I would say yes to all three, but I read the shorter version of Life and Fate. (I think it was censored by the Soviets.)
Up the Junction is a great funny yet grim picture of working class life in 1960s London, I always recommend it to people. And at some point I’ll read Life and Fate.
Always recommend Up the Junction as a study of life in Brirain in the 1960s. Too little known compared to the Angry Young Men.
I’ve read A Woman in Berlin: it’s quite confronting and horrific in places, but the woman’s resilience and survival instinct shines through.
Such an original tale.
My contemporary historian partner used to set Nell Dunn’s books for his students, and showed them Ken Loach’s films of her work. Very effective, apparently, particularly as they tended to be from very privileged backgrounds.
I’ve only read Up the Junction which I thought was excellent. The other two sound really compelling too.
Up the Junction -wow , that’s a blast from the past. I remember reading it back in the day. Could be an interesting time capsule given how posh and upmarket Clapham and the Junction are these days.
I’ve only read Up the Junction which is fab, def time for a re read.