“City of Thieves” by David Benioff
Recently I stumbled upon “City of Thieves” in a book store. Although I’d read a series of shorts stories by the book’s author David Benioff, I had no emotional ties to this particular novel. Nevertheless, I read the flap and decided that a story about a teenager and young deserter set during World War II might prove to be interesting. I was worried about the historical component of the book. Was I really interested in details of the siege of Leningrad by the brutal Nazis? Did I want to spend part of my summer reading a historical drama involving the horrors of war especially as it pertained to the Russian element?
Ultimately, I caved and began reading the adventures of seventeen year old Lev Beniov. As the story began, Lev watched mesmerized as a parachuting German plummeted to the ground near the desolate apartment building where he resided. Upon reaching the German after the landing nearby, Lev and his young friends discovered that the soldier was dead (apparently frozen). Lev removed a knife from the pocket of the corpse as his friends took other personal belongings from the dead Nazi. However, Russian soldiers caught Lev and arrested him for looting as his friends escaped. Lev was thrown into a bleak prison with a young deserter named Kolya. Both young men faced a potential death sentence for their actions. After surviving a night in prison, Lev and Kolya were taken to a Soviet colonel. Instead of death or even punishment, the Soviet colonel directed the young men to find him a dozen eggs for his daughter’s wedding cake. The war torn city was isolated, barren and desolate. There was virtually no food and some inhabitants had even resorted to cannibalism to survive. How would Lev and Kolya find a dozen eggs? Thus began one of the most intense, tragic, emotional, roller coaster tales I have ever read. This is the type of book that should be used to turn people onto the magic of reading good books. In addition, this is a man’s book. No chick lit, romance, soap opera, quirkiness in this work of art! Many of my favorite books have been written by women. However, I was really in the mood for a book written by a man that was expressly geared for a male audience. So female authors; PLEASE don’t take offense. Young Lev grew from a boy into a man throughout the course of the adventure and faced enough tragedy and suffering for a hundred lifetimes. Despite the atrocities Lev endured on his journey with Kolya, he ultimately transformed physically, spiritually and morally into quite a man. Like I said, this novel was written for men (particularly teens and up). I’m not saying that women won’t like it. I’m just saying that the perspective was uniquely masculine, and the story was told completely from Lev’s point of view. Macho mentality all the way! Kolya for example was a handsome womanizing soldier accused of desertion. But in reality, his real vice involved his other controlling entity residing between his legs. No matter how bleak a situation became, Kolya always made time to deal with his favorite appendage and all of its needs, wants and fantasies. This made for some comedic episodes in an otherwise terrifying ordeal. Unlike Kolya, Lev had barely discovered, let alone explored, his urges around females. Lev’s priorities were food, shelter and sleep, and his fight for survival overshadowed many typical male yearnings. Pairing Lev with Kolya was masterful and immensely entertaining to read (surely a movie will be made from Benioff’s masterpiece). When the pair encountered an assassin, and then traveled through harsh, frozen, Russian terrain with the new companion, things really began to heat up. The novel also had a fantastic, rewarding yet heartrending finale. You have to read this novel!
This will be in my list of top ten books that I will have my own sons read someday. Hopefully “City of Thieves” will transform them as well as entertain them immensely. I’m having a fantastic year with my choice of books so far. Each book seems to top the prior. This is my favorite book of 2009 so far and perhaps one of my top ten books of all time.
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