Independent+Novel+Study

Sabrina Chipping 12/03/10 "City of Thieves" (pages 1-39 Chapter 4) The book called "City of Thieves" by David Benioff, is the one that I have chosen for my independent novel study. The main character's name is Lev Beniov who is living during WW2 in Leningard. He has been living on his own as a commander of a firefighting unit to support their city. His mother and younger sister left to Vyazma for safety before the "Germans closed the circle in September". The beginning to all his troubles started when they spotted a dead German paratrooper falling from the sky. When he landed, Lev and his friends began to loot things from the man, like cognac and a knife. When the GAZ came, everyone but Lev were able to escape, and he had been arrested for theft. They brought him to a cell where he met another man named Kolya who had apparently been arrested for being a deserter of his unit. They knew that they should have been sentenced to a death penalty for their arrest, but instead they were brought to a mansion. There they meet a colonel who offered them a deal. They were to find a dozen eggs before sunrise a week from today, for his daughter's wedding cake. "You understand this is a gift? You bring me back a dozen eggs by Thursday, I give you your lives back. You understand the rareness of this gift?" was the colonel's last words to them.

The fact that this story was based in 1942 is the reason why I picked this book as my Independent Novel Study. I always seem to go after the books about World War II, the holocaust, and black slavery because I love to read the touching stories of those who have survived and to look at these historic events from their perspective. So far, my favourite novel about World War II is "Under a War-Torn Sky" by L.M. Elliot.

This story is told in first person through Lev Beniov’s experience during the war against the Germans. This perspective influences the story by adding more suspense, intensity, and able to use the element of surprise more. Because the reader is looking at the story through the main character’s eyes, you can feel as lost as the character does at times. If it was told in omniscient, the reader would have more intel then the character, and most of the time see what is coming for them.

After reading up to chapter four, I saw that there were a few antecedent actions in the story. The obvious one was that the Second World War had already begun and everyone in Leningrad had been surviving on ration cards for quite some time. Another was that his mother and younger sister had been evacuated months ago to be safe from German invasions. I also read that his father, a published poet, had died when the NKVD had taken him away. Lev was just a boy when he received this news. As I read on I will probably find more events that happened before the novel began.

I found this novel to be very interesting from the moment I read the first rising action. (The German paratrooper that fell from an unheard aircraft.) The fact that they have to find a dozen eggs in order to save their lives made me even more eager keep reading. I can’t wait to find out what happens on this hunt for chicken eggs.

10/10

I.Inedependent Novel Study II."City of Thieves" by David Benioff (page 39-106 Chapters 4-12)

The story has finally begun to tell the adventure of Lev and Kolya on their journey to find eggs They first decided to look in the Haymarket which was just a few miles away from where they were. Kolya spent half of their money, which they were given, on some vodka that nearly killed him. They then spoke to a boy who told them that here was an old man back near where Lev use to live, who managed to keep chickens up in his roof. The boy warned them that he would shoot anyone who stepped foot into his house. Just before they decided to head back to the Kirov where they would be able to sleep, a man came up to them and offered to sell them eggs. He was a very large and tall man and said that if they wanted the eggs they would have to come inside his apartment. Kolya wasn't afraid, but Lev had an uneasy feeling about it. When they went inside they walked into a room filled with meat that looked like human flesh. Lev swore he saw a child's rib cage, a woman's thigh, and many hands and feet. Lev and Kolya ran out of there and managed to escape some cannibals. When they reached the Kirov, it had been bombed to pieces by the Germans, so they spent the night at Kolya's friends place near by. The next day they went to see if the old man really had chickens. It was true, but the old man had died from the cold and there was only a boy beside him with a half alive chicken in his coat. When they asked for the chicken he surprisingly just gave it up to them. When they brought it back to where they had stayed, the surgeon laughed and told them that it wouldn't lay eggs because it was a rooster. They ended having a nice rooster dinner. The girl who owned the apartment they were staying at, told them that she had an uncle who owned a poultry farm in Mga. The next morning they headed for Mga with only five more days before their due date.

The setting of this story was based in 1942 during the Second World War in Lennigrad, Russia. It was December so the land was cold, snowy and icy. The atmosphere is tense because the people are struggling while living on ration cards. Lev and Kolya already found out that people have turned to cannibalism for survival. Everyone there is basically skin and bones and they say that you have to beware of the ones that are fit. There is so many dead lying around in the streets and the pile for them is getting larger and larger. The setting of the story is important and can't happen anywhere else because this was based on a true story of someone who lived during WW2. It woul be difficult to place this story somewhere else without changing the true plot.

Lev's intial problem that caused all his troubles was when the GAZ came to find the corpse of the paratrooper. It seemed like Lev was going to escape, but then Vera. a girl who also lived in the Kirov, slipped on some ice and stumbled to the ground. She looked up at him with frightened and pleading eyes. He could have just left her there and he would be safe and not sentenced for execution, but he jumped down and decided to be her rescuer. When Vera was over the gate and Lev was almost to the top, They caught his foot and yanked him to the ground. Lev looked to see if Vera was going to help him, but she didn't even look back for him. He was furious with her as he was taken away to where he thought he was to be executed.

The author gets me to keep reading because of the story's strange and funny predicament. I haven't heard of a story based during the war where people were sent behind enemy lines to find a dozen eggs for a wedding cake. Who would want to get married during war anyway? If Lev and Kolya find these eggs they won't be executed. I like this book so much, at night I can't put it down.

10/10
 * I. English**
 * II. Independent Novel Study**
 * (pages 107-161 Chapters 12-17)**
 * A few hours after they began their journey, they came to the edge of the Leningrad defenses: barbed wire, trenches, machine-guns, aircraft batteries, and tanks. They sergent gve them come bread to take with them because they were going behind enemy lines. When they had consumed the bread and had been walking longer than they hoped, they stumbled upon a field full of dead dogs who had been killed by Germans. The dogs died because of a russian ploy had failed. It was almost dark when they came Kolya finally admited that they had been going in th worng direction because they should have made it to Mga hours ago. That was when they both spotted a farmhouse that Kolya wasn't to keen on going inside a house that could have German generals living in it. Lev wouldn't go any farther so they both ended up checking out who was inside. They found four girls in night gowns. When they were let indside they found out that their familieas had been killed and they were take here to be the German's entertainment. There use to be five of them but the youngest girl tried to run away and they taught them a lesson by cutting her ankles off. Kolya decided that they would wait until the Germans came and then make an attempt to kill them. They prepared when they heard the German trucks pulled up, but heard them being ambushed by somebody else. A group of Russians including a girl named Vika, killed all the Germans and decided that they would all travel to Novoye Koshkino in the morning. Lev and Kolya began to trudge through the snow again.**
 * The main problem that is added was when Kolya and Lev became sidetracked trying to look for the dog howls. They had lost alot of time and ground and they knew they would never get to Mga before dark. Because they wouldn't make it, they had to find somewhere to stay. When they came to a farm house and discovered the girls there, the Germans that were coming to the door were ambushed and then they had guns pointed to their heads. If only they hadn't lost thier way and gotten distracted, none of this would have happened and they would have managed to find their final destination. But not all bad things came out of these events. They were able to help four girls runaway from the German's, and they ended up getting protection from Russian partisans as they would make their way to another city to find their eggs.**
 * In this section of the book there are sixteen new characters that are introduced, but only six have detailed descriptions. The first four that are introduced are the girls who are taking care of by Nazis in return for entertaining them. Their names are Nina, Galina, Lara, and Olesya and they all were about the same age as Lev. Galina was small, chubby brunet who looked clumsy and unable to find the beat when she was dancing to music. Nina was her sister, but with blonde hair, a pale freckled face, and a slender figure. Lara at the time had a towel over her wet hair and her lips were painted red. Olesya had an elegent neck of a ballerina, a nose at a perfect right angle, and brown hair tied back in tight pigtails. She was shy and quite for she never spoke a word since Lev and kolya arrived. They all wore night gowns and looked healthy and fead. The two other characters that were introduced was the leader of the partisans and their best shot which was a girl named Vika. The leader's name was Korsakov and they were all dressed in long coats with rifles in their hands. Their big game were looking for Einsatz, specifically a man named Abendroth. This was the same man that usually comes to the farmhouse but was staying at a house by the lake in Novoye Koshkino.**
 * I do find this novel easy to follow because the style doesn't jump back a forth from different time llike some books. I can get confused sometimes when authors add flashbacks to their books. This novel tells you a story that is always in the present which keeps you from knowing information, enticing the you to keep on reading. So the reader doesn't get bored of the book, the author entices us because humans have a need to know. We are always searching and exlporing, striving to know more and gain knowledge.**


 * 10/10 **

"City of Thieves" By David Benioff
===The book "City of Thieves" by David Benioff is a war novel that is entertaining, intense, and gives you a good idea of what it was like to live WW2 Russia. I saw that the lower-class of Russia had the worst livign conditions, living on practically paper and glue while trying to escape German bombings night after night. Benioff fully described the effect of war and Nazi siege. To me this book was a page turner, for it almost had no dull moment, which was one of the things that I like most abou this novel. It kept entincing me to find out whether Lev and Kolya succeed in thier mission to find a dozen eggs, while finding the time to make me laugh. The thing that I found most bizarre about this book was Lev and Kolya's predigament. The plot revolves around their odd task that will risk yet save their lives. Though their mission to find a dozen eggs for a wedding cake in the middle of a war is bizarre, it's what also makes this novel interseting.=== ===The main message that I get out of this novel is that no matter how dark and difficult times seem, friendships can still be made that can help you get through it all until the end. That's what the story was all about really. Two people who were brought together by a death sentence, formed a friendship that lasted a lifetime. Lev had other close friends that he had known since childhood, but he reffered to Kolya as his best friend even though he had only known him for less than a week before he died. And when Kolya died Lev felt hurt, whih told me that he had an emotional attatchment to him. The two of them acted like they had been brothers from birth. It turns out that in the end, all we really have is each other to get through time. Since i think the message had to do with friendship, I believe Benioff portrayed this very well.=== ===I believe this novel was written for David Benioff's grandmother and grandfather since they seemed to be his inspiration. Some things in this novel are and aren't believable though. In the beginging of the book there is a short write up of where David got the idea of his story as he asked his grandfather to talk about the war and Lennigrad. David wants to get the story right so he asks lots of detailed questions. The last sentence is his grandfather tellling him to make it up because he is a writer. From there I am not sure what parts of the novel are fiction and what parts are what his grandfather actually experienced. I'm guessing, because of the strange plot-line and events where no one should have survived, that the bulk of this story is fiction.=== ===I would definately recommend this novel to someone because I found it to be a very entertaining and entincing read. Because the boys are in their late teens and early twentys, there is alot of talk about sex and some language. But this didn't bother me because I found that it went with the story and who the characters are. I enjoyed this book very much, but I don't believe I would read anymore of David's books unless they are about war. Over the years I have realized that these are the books that I am most interesting in reading.===