Reading for Saturday, 14 March
We now switch to the Rostovs on their escape from Moscow. It’s only a tiny chapter, but it’s quite dramatic, how it shifts from the humourous (the way the Rostovs barely get anywhere because they keep running back to fetch things) through to the tragic. When old Danilo starts weeping, we know Moscow is in trouble . . .
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Yes, what a powerful, shattering chapter this was – and, I thought, I wonderful stroke from Tolstoy that the first image we get of Moscow buring is this distant view of the glow, where, at first, no one is even sure that it is Moscow. But, that final paragraph, so full of sorrow, and a sense of helplessness in the face of loss, was, for me, incredibly moving – expressed, as always, in Tolstoy’s simple, direct and unadorned language, which aways manages to say so much.
Yes, it’s one of those start from a long zoom out and then move in chapters. So we see Moscow burning from a distance, and then we know Tolstoy will take us further in to see.
I can’t imagine how I’d feel were it Toronto that was being burned down! I sure hope this kinda’ thing doesn’t happen in our own time.
The worst thing I’ve ever seen is 911 – and that happened in New York – and in reality, it’s only ‘across the lake’ from us!
I was really scared that day – especially during that hour or so when the 3rd plane was still up in the sky . . . I kept picturing it coming down, flying into the CN Tower.