Post by kungfuzu on Jun 11, 2022 19:05:13 GMT -8
"Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith
The book opens in the village of Chervoy in the Ukraine of 1933. This is during the period known, by the Ukrainians, as the Holomodor. It is a time of mass starvation, desperation, murder and cannibalism.
Two boys, Pavel and his younger brother Andrei, are tracking a cat in a snow-covered forest with the hope of catching it for dinner. They are successful, but in order to get their prize back home without being noticed, they must gather sticks in order to appear having been gathering fire wood, with the cat hidden among the lumber.
The two go in different directions to get the wood. Pavel is set upon by a starving man who hits him with a branch. After some minutes, Andrei returns to the area where they had caught the cat and looks for Pavel. After searching for some time, he finds a spot in the snow covered with blood and he panics, running home to let his mother know what has happened. The mother, Oksana, is none too pleased as Pavel was her favorite. In a fit of rage, she shoves a spoon down Andrei’s throat as he is trying to get some soup. This is, apparently, par for the course for poor, half-blind, clumsy Andrei.
The book jumps ahead to 1953 Moscow. A boy’s naked body is found next to railroad tracks and his parents, one of whom is a lower-level MGB member Fyodor Andreev, believes it was murder. As there can be no such thing as a degenerate murder in the perfect Soviet society, his superiors have arranged the little investigation done on the case to show it was an accident. To convince Fyodor and his wife of dropping the matter, Leo Stepanovich Demidov, an up-and-coming MGB official, is sent to talk to Fyodor.
Demidov is a true believer who has implicit faith in the Soviet cause. During WWII, he had been part of an elite unit, trained and controlled by the NKVD (the predecessor of the MGB, which was the predecessor of the KGB.) This unit was sent behind enemy lines to spread confusion and mayhem among the Germans. His photo standing next to a destroyed German tank was even on the front page of Pravda.
Fyodor gets the message, and agrees to shut up. Leo is happy with the outcome. While understanding Fyodor’s anguish, he believes such doubts of the Soviet system must be contained, for the greater good. “For the greater good” Demidov is willing to perform all sorts of cruel and questionable actions. He occasionally sometimes muses about the pains caused by his actions, but these thoughts pass quickly.
Everything is going well with Leo until he is asked to denounce his wife, who is accused of being a spy. A loyal citizen of the Soviet Union and member of the MGB, Leo follows his wife and searches his home to make sure she is what he believes her to be, a loyal citizen. Thus, when the time comes between denouncing her, which would be hugely in his favor, or declaring her loyal, which would likely cost him his life, Leo declares that his wife, Raisa, is loyal to the State. Thus begins Raisa and Leo’s spa treatment in the Lubyanka. For some reason, possibly because Stalin has died during their incarceration, Leo and Raisa are not murdered, but released. Still, Leo has been thrown out of the MGB and appointed to the lowly militia in some hick town, Voualsk, hundreds of miles from Moscow. To make matters worse, he is demoted to the lowest rank in that organization.
Things do not start out well, and his superior General Nesterov does not trust him. Leo starts to adjust to his new situation, when the naked body of a child is found near a railway track around Voualsk. The General puts this down to some drunk or such person, but Leo tells him of the boy in Moscow. After further work, Leo convinces the General that there is a mass murderer loose in the USSR. The rest of the book covers how Leo and General Nesterov go about searching for the murderer, while trying to stay under the MGB’s radar.
Child 44 is a well written book. The author keeps things moving at a rapid clip, but does not sacrifice story for brevity. I found the book’s portrayal of the evil Soviet system particularly good, It shows how the bureaucratic communists turned everyone into suspicious liars, humiliated and broken people who were atomized, unable to rely on anyone for truth. Informers were everywhere. Virtually everyone lived a lie.
The STATE was where one’s loyalties were to lie. The STATE was the arbiter of right and wrong. The STATE’S use of terror was for “the greater good. Terror was necessary. Terror protected the revolution.” “The only relationship which mattered was a person’s relationship with the STATE.”
I thought the following observation regarding “those guilty of anti-Soviet agitation, counterrevolutionary activity, and espionage” particularly insightful.
Why did that category of prisoner strike particular dread into everyone’s heart? While it was easy to comfort yourself that you would never steal or rape or murder, no one could ever by sure they weren’t guilty of anti-Soviet agitation, counterrevolutionary activity, and espionage, since no one, including Leo, could ever be sure exactly what these crimes were.
I also thought the below sentence showed a clear understanding of what motivates most people, (including our own bureaucrats in and out of government.) The author is writing about MGB interrogators and torturers.
They were motivated, like most employees, by simple things such as the prospect of a performance-related pay bonus, rewarded if the suspect signed promptly and unconditionally without amendments.
On what was this lawlessness, this cruelty predicated?
The promise of a golden age where none of this brutality would exist, where everything would be in plenty and poverty would be a memory, justified everything.
Disney had nothing on the communists.
During his journey through the book, Leo learns some unpleasant truths about the STATE, personal relationships and life in general. He has his own personal epiphanies along the way.
The first 20-25% of the book alone makes it worth reading. In fact, I would consider it exceptional to that point. Unfortunately, the author then moves from dealing with and describing the STATE and its relationship to the people, to the question of murder. It is here that the author fumbles the ball. The device which he uses, the premise around which the murders are based is so far fetched as to be almost laughable. It truly is so unlikely as to beggar belief. But if the reader can get past that and continue, the book is still worth reading. There are a few more unlikely points, but once the first is accepted these are relatively minor.
It was good enough for me to check out the second book of the trilogy, "The Secret Speech."
The book opens in the village of Chervoy in the Ukraine of 1933. This is during the period known, by the Ukrainians, as the Holomodor. It is a time of mass starvation, desperation, murder and cannibalism.
Two boys, Pavel and his younger brother Andrei, are tracking a cat in a snow-covered forest with the hope of catching it for dinner. They are successful, but in order to get their prize back home without being noticed, they must gather sticks in order to appear having been gathering fire wood, with the cat hidden among the lumber.
The two go in different directions to get the wood. Pavel is set upon by a starving man who hits him with a branch. After some minutes, Andrei returns to the area where they had caught the cat and looks for Pavel. After searching for some time, he finds a spot in the snow covered with blood and he panics, running home to let his mother know what has happened. The mother, Oksana, is none too pleased as Pavel was her favorite. In a fit of rage, she shoves a spoon down Andrei’s throat as he is trying to get some soup. This is, apparently, par for the course for poor, half-blind, clumsy Andrei.
The book jumps ahead to 1953 Moscow. A boy’s naked body is found next to railroad tracks and his parents, one of whom is a lower-level MGB member Fyodor Andreev, believes it was murder. As there can be no such thing as a degenerate murder in the perfect Soviet society, his superiors have arranged the little investigation done on the case to show it was an accident. To convince Fyodor and his wife of dropping the matter, Leo Stepanovich Demidov, an up-and-coming MGB official, is sent to talk to Fyodor.
Demidov is a true believer who has implicit faith in the Soviet cause. During WWII, he had been part of an elite unit, trained and controlled by the NKVD (the predecessor of the MGB, which was the predecessor of the KGB.) This unit was sent behind enemy lines to spread confusion and mayhem among the Germans. His photo standing next to a destroyed German tank was even on the front page of Pravda.
Fyodor gets the message, and agrees to shut up. Leo is happy with the outcome. While understanding Fyodor’s anguish, he believes such doubts of the Soviet system must be contained, for the greater good. “For the greater good” Demidov is willing to perform all sorts of cruel and questionable actions. He occasionally sometimes muses about the pains caused by his actions, but these thoughts pass quickly.
Everything is going well with Leo until he is asked to denounce his wife, who is accused of being a spy. A loyal citizen of the Soviet Union and member of the MGB, Leo follows his wife and searches his home to make sure she is what he believes her to be, a loyal citizen. Thus, when the time comes between denouncing her, which would be hugely in his favor, or declaring her loyal, which would likely cost him his life, Leo declares that his wife, Raisa, is loyal to the State. Thus begins Raisa and Leo’s spa treatment in the Lubyanka. For some reason, possibly because Stalin has died during their incarceration, Leo and Raisa are not murdered, but released. Still, Leo has been thrown out of the MGB and appointed to the lowly militia in some hick town, Voualsk, hundreds of miles from Moscow. To make matters worse, he is demoted to the lowest rank in that organization.
Things do not start out well, and his superior General Nesterov does not trust him. Leo starts to adjust to his new situation, when the naked body of a child is found near a railway track around Voualsk. The General puts this down to some drunk or such person, but Leo tells him of the boy in Moscow. After further work, Leo convinces the General that there is a mass murderer loose in the USSR. The rest of the book covers how Leo and General Nesterov go about searching for the murderer, while trying to stay under the MGB’s radar.
Child 44 is a well written book. The author keeps things moving at a rapid clip, but does not sacrifice story for brevity. I found the book’s portrayal of the evil Soviet system particularly good, It shows how the bureaucratic communists turned everyone into suspicious liars, humiliated and broken people who were atomized, unable to rely on anyone for truth. Informers were everywhere. Virtually everyone lived a lie.
The STATE was where one’s loyalties were to lie. The STATE was the arbiter of right and wrong. The STATE’S use of terror was for “the greater good. Terror was necessary. Terror protected the revolution.” “The only relationship which mattered was a person’s relationship with the STATE.”
I thought the following observation regarding “those guilty of anti-Soviet agitation, counterrevolutionary activity, and espionage” particularly insightful.
Why did that category of prisoner strike particular dread into everyone’s heart? While it was easy to comfort yourself that you would never steal or rape or murder, no one could ever by sure they weren’t guilty of anti-Soviet agitation, counterrevolutionary activity, and espionage, since no one, including Leo, could ever be sure exactly what these crimes were.
I also thought the below sentence showed a clear understanding of what motivates most people, (including our own bureaucrats in and out of government.) The author is writing about MGB interrogators and torturers.
They were motivated, like most employees, by simple things such as the prospect of a performance-related pay bonus, rewarded if the suspect signed promptly and unconditionally without amendments.
On what was this lawlessness, this cruelty predicated?
The promise of a golden age where none of this brutality would exist, where everything would be in plenty and poverty would be a memory, justified everything.
Disney had nothing on the communists.
During his journey through the book, Leo learns some unpleasant truths about the STATE, personal relationships and life in general. He has his own personal epiphanies along the way.
The first 20-25% of the book alone makes it worth reading. In fact, I would consider it exceptional to that point. Unfortunately, the author then moves from dealing with and describing the STATE and its relationship to the people, to the question of murder. It is here that the author fumbles the ball. The device which he uses, the premise around which the murders are based is so far fetched as to be almost laughable. It truly is so unlikely as to beggar belief. But if the reader can get past that and continue, the book is still worth reading. There are a few more unlikely points, but once the first is accepted these are relatively minor.
It was good enough for me to check out the second book of the trilogy, "The Secret Speech."
