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In an
attempt to capture his grandfather's memories from the besieged
Russian city of Leningrad during World War II, David Benioff
stumbled upon something especially liberating: creative license.
"I questioned
[my grandfather] about various details-names, locations, weather
conditions on certain days," Benioff recalls, explaining his
quest for accuracy.
But his
grandfather told him to stop. "It was a long time ago," he
admitted. "I don't remember what I was wearing. I don't remember
if the sun came out."
Benioff
stammered that he wanted to get it right.
"You're
a writer," his grandfather said to him. "Make it up."
And so
he did. The resulting novel, City of Thieves, is like
a literary Bing Crosby/Bob Hope buddy movie through the frozen,
war-torn landscape of northern Russia. Benioff's prose is
bare and elegant and a pleasure to read. The story he tells
is funny in an absurdist, "can you believe this is really
happening to us" kind of way that could be depressing and
grim if a person stopped to think about it.
But the
novel's two main characters, Lev and Kolya, seldom stop for
long. Lev-—based on Benioff's grandfather—has been
thrown in jail for looting from the body of a dead paratrooper.
Kolya, slightly older and far more worldly than the naïve
Lev, has been jailed for deserting. Both crimes are capital
offenses.
The two
young men get fished out of prison by a Russian colonel who
sends them on a special mission: In a besieged city barren
of the most basic foodstuffs, Lev and Kolya must round up
a dozen eggs. The colonel needs them so his daughter can have
the wedding cake she's always dreamed of having.
The ensuing
adventure might sound a little like a cross between James
Bond and Indiana Jones. The quest includes cannibals, Russian
partisans roaming the countryside, a beautiful female assassin,
sub-zero temperatures, Nazis, friendly fire, and a chess match
with the highest stakes.
But there's
no melodrama. There's no larger-than-life action-adventure.
There's only war and the terrible things it makes people do.
This gritty reality keeps the story effectively grounded and
serves as a compelling counterbalance to the buddy story of
Kolya and Lev. Benioff always tries to humanize that desperate
reality, too, usually through the introspections of Lev. "[C]ontrary
to popular belief, the experience of terror does not make
you braver," Lev says. "Perhaps, though, it is easier to hide
your fear when you're afraid all the time."
Benioff's
prose avoids getting graphic when a writer with a less deft
touch might be tempted down the road of gratuity. But more
importantly, Kolya's irrepressibly flippant sarcasm makes
everything seem jaunty. For instance, when the colonel sends
them on their mission, he tells them to bring back the eggs
or they won't get their ration cards back.
"That's
assuming one of my men doesn't find you and kill you before
then," the colonel says, "and my men are very good at that."
"They just can't find eggs," says Kolya.
Kolya's
charm and Lev's sincerity make them both appealing characters.
Strangers at first, the two grow close over the course of
their adventure. Lev must learn how to look beyond Kolya's
levity just as Kolya must learn to look past Lev's naiveté.
The two traits work well off each other, making Lev the perfect
foil for Kolya's running banter.
Benioff
also develops an interesting cast of supporting characters,
many of whom breeze in and out of the narrative like a Siberian
wind: Readers don't really get to see them, but they can still
feel the characters as they blow by. Only the Nazis, as bad
guys, are largely written as stereotypes, and their commander
really does seem like a sinister, old-school James Bond foe.
By that point in the novel, after all the turns real and surreal,
he seems to fit in just perfectly.
The novel's
sad but satisfying ending suggests an especially interesting
connection to the novel's introduction-the true story of Benioff
interviewing his grandfather.
City
of Thieves is a richly textured, wonderful novel that
allows Benioff to capture the human spirit and the experience
of war in a way that a factual telling of his grandfather's
story could not. Lev's tale, if not factual, is nonetheless
true. The real-world Lev recognized that and, fortunately
for readers, helped his grandson find freedom.
(July
2008)
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