James’s answer to “Does one have to read In a Just Cause in order to read Life and Fate? Or are they stand alone piece…” > Likes and Comments

I'm reading Life and Fate, and it's quite hard to figure out the past of many of the main characters as Grossman usually has only a brief, non-chronological paragraph about the character's past. Considering that one's past (whether parents were aristocrats or kulaks, whether a person took the "right" side in the many ideological conflicts, etc.) is critical, this makes understanding their reactions and/or personal issues difficult. Of course, trying to figure out what was going on politically at that time in Russia is nearly impossible.