Literature and Storytelling Theme Analysis

From the opening framing device of the novel, in which David narrates how he came to interview Lev for the story that makes up most of the novel, storytelling, and by extension literature, are introduced as central ideas and concerns of the book. Storytelling is considered as it applies to local myth, family lore, and fairytales, while formal, published literature is explored in terms of power and censorship.

The novel begins with the fact that the author David's grandfather, Lev, is famous in the family for having killed two Nazis in a knife fight. The power of this knowledge as family lore leads into questions about truth, fiction, and the power of storytelling. When the elderly Lev grows tired of answering his grandson's clarifying questions about the siege, he instructs David to simply make things up. This allows the reader to wonder which elements of the story that follows are true or not, highlighting the strangeness of truth and the importance of fiction. These ideas work throughout the rest of the novel to heighten the absurdity and dreamlike quality of the events and the narration.

In a similar vein, viewing the world through a lens of fiction and fairytale is one way that the teenage Lev attempts to make sense of the horrors taking place around him. As things that seemed once to be relegated to the world of fiction become reality, like cannibals and an absurd quest for impossible-to-find eggs, the narration shifts more and more to an engagement with events as though the characters are simply existing in a very strange story. Lev describes both himself and Kolya as living in this way. Kolya simply treats the war as though it's a ridiculous story from which he will certainly emerge triumphant. Lev, on the other hand, is fascinated by the absurdity of the situation, makes connections to fairytales, and hears events being narrated in his head. In this way, fiction becomes a vehicle through which the characters, in different ways, can both protect themselves and attempt to make sense of the events they experience.

Lev and Kolya are both shaped by the dangers and difficulties of writing, telling, and publishing stories. During this time in Russian history, intense censorship by the Soviet government of all sorts of art and information played a huge part in keeping the population under control and boosting Soviet citizens’ morale for the war. Lev's family paid the price for writing material that didn't unwaveringly support the Soviet regime when his father, a semi-famous Jewish poet, was taken by the NKVD in 1937 and never returned. For Lev, this created a sense of danger around the written word, as he's witnessed firsthand the price of speaking one's mind. Kolya is also a writer, but he's afraid of embarrassment rather than persecution for his work. As such, he invents an author, Ushakovo, and discusses his novel The Courtyard Hound as though it's already a published work to avoid embarrassing himself. However, though Lev falls for Kolya's ploy, he's still quick to point out when elements or passages of The Courtyard Hound seem too similar to other famous works. Through Kolya's referencing of these other authors, the reader is reminded that Kolya is young and inexperienced and is in the process of not just writing his novel, but of writing the story of his life as well. In the end, this idea extends to all the characters. The narration that Lev hears in his head becomes actual narration in a published novel, and his and Kolya's story, no matter how fictionalized, is recorded, edited, and shared with the world.