OBOC - Belarus

I now understand why Vasil Bykov has the reputation that he has. I was fortunate to have stumbled upon "Sign of Misfortune" as part of my OBOC project. This book is going to stay with me for a long time.

A view of WWII told from the point of view of two pesants whose life was nothing to boast about before the German invasion, and one that only gets more miserable with every passing day, is one gripping narrative. Poverty is nothing new to Stepanida and Petroc, as they lived through Stalin's collectivization policies (the reality of which is exposed through flashbacks throughout the novel), but now they were witnessing a new kind of tyranny something that they are not able to comprehend with their "simple" peasant minds.

As the Nazis roll into town, take over their farm, they see their own countrymen acquiring brutal qualities as they become the new Polizei. How do human beings who have experienced the dignity of being humans at some point stand up to these "brutes". With no news about their son and daughter, they see their only possessions - a cow named Bobovka (and yes, I remember the name as Bykov makes you feel for the cow too!), a piglet and a dozen chickens - also succumbing to this incomprehensible tyranny.

Stepandia - the "activist" is a doer - she is not used to taking things lying down, and she keeps up her spirit until the end. Petroc on the other hand is just a simple, quite man who would rather step aside than pick any quarrels. In their life time they lived through a harsh world, first as laborers for Kulaks, then they saw the individual farmer rooted out through collectivization, then they lived in anticipation of a future when everything would be organized and they'd be in clover. In reality they only lived a life of shortages and anxieties. And then the war came along.

In one chapter Bykov says about Stepanida, "She had not read their (Germans) books and knew nothing of their high-level politics. She was used to judging great things through small, the world by her own village." That is exactly what Bykov does in the Sign of Misfortune - he describes the world under Stalin and Hitler through the eyes of these 2 peasants.

Is human good powerless in the face of evil? Wasn't man made to repay good for good? Whoever is in the right has no need of weapons. Are these just simple, saintly reflections of two peasants? It certainly got me thinking.

While there was so much "action" in the book, it also devotes significant number of pages to describing day-to-day routines of two unsophisticated farmers, and even those narrations were so gripping and moving.

I dont know how many people in the West have heard of Vasil Bykau but he certainly is considered a literary treasure in his native Belarus. As someone who has lived through war, his writings and his stance are so relevant in today's world and I am glad I got to read him through this effort.