Meeting Notes: Between Shades of Gray

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bookworms were a tad distracted during our last meet-up. It was Halloween, and we were all dressed in costume--half of us as book worms! A few of our members are back in school, and, with the semester revving up, just couldn't make time to read our selection. However, we still had a good discussion. It was hard not to find things to say about Between Shades of Gray. The first thing almost everyone wondered was, how could we not have been ignorant of this? Tens of millions of people throughout Eastern Europe were killed by Stalin's policies. The author says that since the Baltic States, including Lithuania, were left under Stalin's rule until 1990, no one was able to talk about the forced deportations and labor camps. Still, we couldn't believe this was the first we'd heard about it. One thing we discussed was the author's writing style and her characterization of Lina, the main character. The book described some pretty atrocious acts by the Soviet guards and the terrible effects of the working and living conditions on the victims. And yet the writing was always very factual and almost cold. Was it because the author didn't want to cheapen the subject matter by overwrought writing? Was it because she wanted us to insert our own emotion? Was it because Lina was supposed to be too strong and stubborn to let the Soviets break her, or too traumatized? We didn't know, but the effects were varying. Some of us felt it distanced them from the horrible events, while others of us thought it made the events more real and horrifying. We also talked about whether we would have taken the risks Lina did by documenting the horrors they were subjected to with her art. Probably not, but it was cool to think one teenage girl could give a voice to so many people. We liked Between Shades of Gray and all agreed it was an important book.
--Bess