Lovely people,
As agreed, the purpose of this post is to allow you to post your summer book review comments below. You really don’t need to write much – one to two paragraphs is fine. Do then look at each others’ comments (especially if you have read the same things).
Enjoy the Summer.
Mr Kydd.
Hello,
I read in the summer, along with the Mr. Men books, which I highly recommend and can lend to anyone who wishes to read them, ‘Endurance and Endeavour’. A very detailed read, this has plenty to think about, although perhaps not to be read for pleasure.
I read One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich and Animal Farm.
I found the storyline of Ivan Denisovich to be a bit dull and not very exciting. It was, however, interesting as an account of what life was like in the situation, although I did think that it would be more extreme and dramatic than it really was!
Animal Farm was a good read and much better than the film version (as most books usually are). I thought this was a very good representation of Russia in our course from what I already know of it and so it was interesting to see how different parts/events were shown. I would recommend it.
I read Animal Farm and thought it represented the Russia course very well; how the idea of a completely equal communist society is transformed into a dictatorship not much different to the rule of the Tsar or Mr Jones in the book. However, it attempts to show how the exploited always will end up victorious over the minority of the exploiters so a perfect communist society will at some point become real; which in reality never happened.
It is an obvious point, but nevertheless a valid one. Change and continuity are key concepts in this course, and Animal Farm reflects this. A critic of Stalin, Birdiev, famously said of him that “all the past is repeating itself and only acts behind new masks”. This course will explore if this is correct or too easy an answer.
Mr Kydd.
I read ‘The master and margarita’ and ‘Animal farm’, both of which are good stand alone books but become far more interesting when you consider them in the context of Russian history
One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich was really different to anything I’d read before and its portayal of the bleak life of a prisoner in the gulag system definitely left a lasting impression
I am currently reading Fathers and sons by Ivan Turgenev – not perhaps to be read for pleasure but very interesting when considering some of the social attitudes and political ideas that relate to the course. I highly recommend all of the above
Before the holidays I took out “Russia and the USSR” by Stephen Lee from the school library and then during the holidays I’ve also been reading “Russia’s war” by Richard Overy. Both non fiction, but finding them very useful in understanding the course and good for reference.