Book 7 of 2013:
Child 44, by Tom Robert Smith
At the
recommendation of my Mom, I jumped back into a "thriller novel"
sooner than I had planned (also, I'm way behind on write-ups).
What struck my mom and I about this book was it's depiction of Stalinist Russia. It's what the children of her generation
feared as they practiced air raid drills at school. For me I kept thinking about how the life
that was depicted made me think of "1984." I cannot imagine living a life ruled by
fear. I don't know how you could live
with a clean conscious because the only way to protect against being stabbed in
the back was to always be preparing to stab someone else in the back. I don't what to ever have to live that way,
and I'm pretty sure that it would break me.
I'm just not made for that.
While reading I was
reminded of a friend who's family immigrated from Ukraine when she was in high
school. Her father, a professor, was
unable to find work. I asked if it was hard
to find university jobs and she replied nonchalantly that jobs were easy to get
if you had the money to bribe people.
The ease with which she made this statement really made me think about
how sheltered a life I lead. If, during
an interview, the interviewer implied that I should bribe them I can imagine
being so personally offended that I would stand up and walk out. "How dare you sir to imagine that I
would lower my self to such a level!"
The opening 2/3 of
the book captivated me like a kick in the stomach. The horrifying nature of the being a
government agent trying to believe what you were doing was ultimately for the
good of the whole society, discovering evidence of gruesome crimes that did not
"officially" happen, and the torture of innocent suspects made keep
reading well past bedtime.
Then...there's a happy ending!
WTF? OK, maybe not a rainbows and
puppies happy ending, but there's a detectable shift in tone that made me feel
let down. The novel draws from the
exploits of an actual killer, but is a work of fiction, so I don't mind holding
Smith accountable for the "False" taste left by the novel's ending.
