Ascent by Jed Mercurio is on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, it reminds me of the much better The Hunters https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-hunters-by-james-salter-aka-james.html by James Salter - 7 out of 10

 

Ascent by Jed Mercurio is on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, it reminds me of the much better The Hunters https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-hunters-by-james-salter-aka-james.html by James Salter

 

7 out of 10

 

Yefgenii Mikhailovich Yeremin is the main character in this novel, I did not want to put in the hero, for I don not see him as one, just as he might not be the anti-hero, in spite of the fact that he fought for the Soviet Union – I am already contradicting myself, how could he kill for those dictators and still be in the grey zone?

 

Nonetheless, this debut is compelling – ‘Stalingrad 1946, 29 million countrymen died in the Great Patriotic War and his whole family was among them’ the child is going to an orphanage and the ordeal there makes the reader cringe, and this first chapter is about a victim of the soviet regime, not a perpetrator of violence

We could also look at the universal values, see that this is a story that could happen elsewhere, and aside from the vileness of the regime – I am in particular hateful, because they brought communism here, where it had no appeal, and then I had to stand up and fight in 1989, to help bring Ceausescu down

 

My participation is mentioned in the Newsweek issue covering the December Revolution http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html perhaps the biggest contribution to anything worthwhile – I mean who has the chancre to take down a dictator – though I have no medal or anything

The above explains the abandonment of the narrative, once this Yeremin starts shooting Americans – well, if they were in the would-be Orange Jesus tribe, as in they vote with him now, educated, if that is the word, their offspring to push this catastrophe to the highest office, then no great loss – I just said Goodbye

 

When he is a child, we couldn’t help but feel sorry for the little one – wait, actually, I live surrounded by spoiled brats, the ones next door, with their BMW SUV and money for nothing, for they are as dumb as stones, seem to be preparing for more noisy assaults, what with anew building and more – because he is tortured

The very first night he is in the orphanage, he is beaten – Full Metal Jacket https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/02/full-metal-jacket-based-on-book-by.html from the divine Stanley Kubrick has scenes like that – blood is on the pillow, a tooth on the floor, and the sack is empty, he is asked about it

Only he is no snitch, ergo the Soviet system does not look into what happened, take the humane attitude – that was vile, cruel and disgusting by definition – and investigate, punish the culprits, they just wanted no headaches and this was so brutal, it was the pigs and the violent dogs that had the control, just like Geroge Orwell explained

 

https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/nineteen-eighty-four-by-george-orwell.html it is the survival of the fittest, dog eat dog, and then after the pigs consolidated their position, it was ‘not what you know, but who you know’, a question of privileges, nomenclature, apparatchiks, and they learn when they are children how to kill

indeed, with all the blood, the tooth, the supervisors punish…Yeremin, made him clean the mess, and this is repeated, when he shows he has skills, he is on the way to the top at mathematics, algebra, trigonometry, the monster who controls the other children, with two other sadists, Babak, wants to destroy the prodigy

 

it is known that there is just one way ticket for Air School, for the best in the group, and when Yeremin solves a quadratic equation that Babak failed to master, the latter attacks again, breaks a finger, stating that the place is his, and if need be, he will maim, kill his competitor, will do anything it takes to get out of this shit hole

now it is the time for Yeremin to get all his strength together, after he is raped during the night by Bakak, a pain that makes him feel he will explode, and when the moment comes, he pushes the ghoul into the latrine, after disabling the assistants, and then he pushed on one eye, until that was gone, ergo no Air School for Babak

 

in the afterword, readers are told that the novel is inspired by actual events, the Soviets were in Korea, albeit the encounters with Neil Armstrong and John Glenn are pure fiction – an U2 plane was shot down, the Soviets had an explosion of a rocket that set back their space program, and although they had the first victories…

later it would be the Americans to conquer the moon – the orphan becomes a pilot, he is so damn good – or such a menace, for we are on the other side of this, I mean this is part of the problem, for me, I want to identify with the hero, see him win, but here, fuck him, let him die, with his Soviet comrades and leaders

 

he has so many kills, that they say he is the best, they call him Ivan the Terrible, then he moves to Star City to become a cosmonaut, meets the legendary Iuri Gagarin, the first human out in space, they enjoy the good life there, no queues, shortages, all the food they want, so part of the nomenclature, albeit on merit, sort of…

the chapter on Korea take place between 1952 and 195, they had no name or rank, but insignia Korean People's Liberation Army Air Force since they fought secretly, the Russians were talking about killing Americans, now how about enjoying that - North Korean troops poured over 38th parallel line, 2 years ago,  to overwhelm the South…Pilipenko shows at map where they can destroy United Nations aircraft…It is a secret that they are there, and some future astronauts are flying in the area -there we have Glenn, and then Stalin dies, causing some to cheer.

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”