Worthen's D.H. Lawrence, Montefiore's Stalin

John Worthen's biography of D.H. Lawrence certainly makes him come alive. It's filled with telling details and anecdotes, including the memorable quote: "D.H. Lawrence was a giraffe in a world of well-behaved dogs: unexpected, unforgettable, and seeing a good deal farther than most." But since Worthen's task is to prove that Lawrence is less of a misogynist and a sadist than his reputation allows, I think he fails. The details of Lawrence's last months, dying of tuberculosis, brought to mind the final volume of Les Plourdes by Roger Martin du Gard. Endless hemoptysis, coughing up lung pieces, fighting for breath...I just finished reading Sebag Montefiore's Stalin. The subtitle refers to the dictator as the red Czar, and the metaphor sticks throughout the book. It is all magnates and plundering and murders (mass and individual). I don't know anyone who knew that Stalin's wife had committed suicide. Some of the details are revolting, especially with respect to the Ukrainians, and of course Khrushchev's striding onto center stage is ominous. The chapters on World War II are the most riveting, with Stalin defecating in front of his aides during a trip to a battlefield, when no one could be sure the area had been thoroughly demined. The chapters describing the Roosevelt/Churchill/Stalin summits are also interesting since the author has no reverence for either Roosevelt or Churchill...The comparison of Elliott Roosevelt and Vasily Stalin (arrogant, alcoholic, self-destructive, pilots) is especially striking. And Stalin's other son, Yakov, whom he had heroically refused to ransom, had been dead two years before Uncle Joe found out. As the war ended, Joe was agonizing over the fact that he expected him to be killed in prison on the Russian advance. And still the Russians advanced...