Shai’s Reviews > War and Peace > Status Update

On the home stretch now. Tolstoy is lashing out at the historians of his time. I'm not sure what Tolstoy thinks of Pierre's comfort in his own skin being associated with Pierre embracing God. Nikolai Rostov is missing the point on just about everything.

We get to follow Andrei's internal experience of dying. Rachel Joyce wrote a whole novel where we witness the internal experience of someone dying. Kudos to Tolstoy for the effort. But it didn't make me cry like R. Joyce's The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy.

Sonia begins to stand up for herself.

Ellen has just died, Andrei is dying; the path is opening for Pierre and Natasha to live happily ever after.

French have arrived in Moscow. Tolstoy has great explanation for the burning of Moscow that dismisses out of hand conventional Russian and French explanations. When you abandon a city primarily built of wooden structures and you have an invading army cooking for itself, fires will ensue.

Pierre, going to war? Not a good idea? Rostov has fallen for Maria, but can he now abandon Sonia. Maria and Andrei's father is finally dead. After decades of emotionally abusing Maria he begs forgiveness on his deathbed and all is forgiven; she feels guilty for briefly having wished for his death.

Tolstoy rejects evaluation of my historians who said Russia brilliantly drew Napolean to Moscow so that his supply lines would be thinned and vulnerable to attack. It was not by intention at all by Russian military leaders.

In describing the medical, familial and family attention paid to her during her sickness in the wake of the Kuragen affair, Tolstoy essentially describes what we now call the placebo effect. He also discusses the power of religion and the familiar to also bring about curative results.

Uggh, I'm at a painful point right now that is hard to take. Natasha is head-over-heals over the asshole womanizing Karagen. And it is so disgusting that Elena, who reminds me of Ghislaine Maxwell, is aiding her brother in the abuse. I should probably turn up the speed to power past it.