Great Great Books

[dumbledore11214]

> > Alla:
> > 
> > Heee. See, we agree again. I have a feeling that if we were to 
> talk about "things unrelated to Snape", we would agree on quite a 
> few topics. :-)
> > 
> 
> Dung:
> No we wouldn't!!
> 
> (That was a joke.)

Alla:

:-)

> Dung:
> You're originally from the Ukraine, right? My grandfather was 
> Polish, from Lviv (I was going to write it £wów - but I'm sure 
> that's wrong - correct me!) - anyway, it's now part of Ukraine. He 
> was deported to Siberia by the Russians at the beginning of WW2, 
and 
> was told to dig his own grave at gun-point. We have two passport 
> photographs of him, one from 1939, depicting a happy smiling young 
> man, and one from 1941, in which his hair is completely white, and 
> his face is lined like a man twenty years older. Unfortunately he 
> died when I was 18 months old. I really wish I'd met him.

Alla:

Yes, I am from Kiev, Ukraine. Came to US to live as a refugee eight 
years ago. Lviv is a beatiful city, it is part of Ukraine now. 

Dung: 
> Have you read Kolyma Tales? (Can't remember who it's by, and left 
my 
> copy in another country, sorry.) It's pretty harrowing, to be 
honest 
> (much more so than Ivan Denisovitch), but I think it's even better 
> written. - Don't expect it to cheer you up though.

Alla:

I heard about this book ( is it by Ginsburg?) but have not read it, 
because at one point in time I read SO much about Stalin's terror 
that I could not read anymore. Too much horror and pain. I mean, I 
felt I had an obligation to myself to learn as much as possible, 
because prior to "glasnost" and "perestroika" those books were not 
available at all, but at some point to keep my sanity in tact I had 
to stop.

I feel so sorry for your grandfather's sufferings, but the horror is 
that millions suffered the same pain, as you know. Sometimes I 
wonder why whatever higher force is up there decided to punish the 
people of those lands so badly and for so long, you know.

Dung:
> Anyway, ceasefire's over, I'm drawing my cutlass again now (see 
main 
> list) - back to Snape...
>

Alla:

LOL! I just answered it, but after rereading mine, I am not sure you 
wil find it worth answering, since it looks like just restating of 
different assumptions we have :)