Don't be put off by the inspirational title of Andrew D. Kaufman's book about another book, War and Peace. It's a serious, thoughtful inquiry into how literature can affect and change people's lives, focused on one great novel. Kaufman knows Russian and he knows his Tolstoy; when Oprah picked Tolstoy's other massive novel, Anna Karenina, as one of her book club selections, Kaufman served as teacher answering her readers' questions.
Here, Kaufman combines biography, history and human interest with literary appreciation to guide us through this "loose, baggy monster of a book." Tolstoy was a 26-year-old soldier when he fought a losing battle with the Russian army during the siege of Sevastopol in Crimea. The war left a deep mark on the writer and influenced War and Peace. The brutal Napoleonic Wars, which ended 13 years before Tolstoy's birth, serve as a key part of the author's classic. As Kaufman points out, it is a war novel, but it's also a family saga and a love story; at its core, it's about "people trying to find their footing in a ruptured world."
Though Tolstoy has been dead just over a century, the wisdom of his most famous novel is relevant today. The specter of war has been too close for too long, we've come close to financial disaster, and the future is uncertain for so many: The "existential angst of Tolstoy and his characters is entirely familiar." Do give this fine, perceptive book a chance; it'll leave you more than ready to tackle Tolstoy's triumphant work. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher