TO AN ELUSIVE MISTRESS

AM I THE LAST person on the planet to read CITY OF THIEVES,  the superb novel by Philip Benioff, set in WWII Leningrad (St. Petersburg) during Hitler's personal homage to all things  - - - - cidal, Operation Barbarossa.  

In one of history's greatest blunders, Germany declared war on its ally Russia, creating major fronts both east and west of the Fatherland.  Overshadowed by Hitler's criminal stupidity and suicidal hubris, is the wonderful irony that ambushed Joseph Stalin.  Famously known as a raving paranoid, the Institute finds great comfort in the black humor of Stalin's betrayal by perhaps the only person he ever trusted ... Das Fuhrer.

Russia's defense of Stalingrad, that death dance on the Volga, is the one of the most famous battles in all of history, as well as the bloodiest with some records claiming up to 2,000,000 dead. Militarily, it changed the war.  Geopolitically, it changed the world.  The events at Stalingrad are well recorded on paper and film.      Find Stalingrad Photographs Here  and  HERE 

Less known is the siege and attempted starvation of the citizens of Leningrad, some 1500 kms west-northwest of Stalingrad at the eastern end of the Baltic. It is here, in the Czarist capital, a classic example of the Motherland's self-defining psychological characteristic, a schizophrenic combination of pessimism and optimism unfolds as Philip Benioff retells his grandparents' story as fighters and survivors in one of the horrid atrocities so blithely subsumed into the innocuous phrase - World War II.

BUT this is not a history lesson, nor is it a book review. I mention "City of Thieves" because in it, the author Philip Benioff has crafted two sentences that define the life of the muse with her man, the enchantment she feels for him and the "talent" in whatever field it may be: writing, mathematics, theoretical physics, athletics, chess, or marbles in that pan-universal giga-cosm of creativity.

To over simplify the principles for success outlined by Malcolm Gladwell in his best selling book Outliers,  practice make perfect.  Not just any practice, not 50 practices, not 1,000, but 20,000 FULL FOCUS practices before your ability to compete at the Olympian level where success separates the hare from the hounds.  

But even the dullest of us asks practice what?  Answer! The creative muse must bring you the raw material  before you can begin. Creativity is the spark one blows on 20000 times before the torch can be delivered to the runner.  Creativity is the gateway to talent.  Discipline and experience can help a writer grind out page after page. But only the Muse can make him a star.

I bring this to you (you know who you are) because I know that you know what Benioff means when the author's character's author says

(The creative muse) is a fanatical mistress.  She’s beautiful; when you’re with her, people watch you, they notice. But she bangs on your door at odd hours, and she disappears for long stretches, and she has no patience for the rest of your existence: your wife, your children, your friends.  She is the most thrilling evening of your week, but some day she will leave you for good.  One night, after she’s been gone for years, you will see her on the arm of a younger man, and she will pretend not to recognize you.

 -The Courtyard Hound 

Did I say this was not a book review?  

I lied.

The story is about friendship, courage, love, murder, Nazi death squads, collaborators, traitors, deserters, partisans, snipers, starvation, cannibalism, commies, Cossacks, hope, endurance, imagination, poetry in the winter of 1941.  And oh yes, the eggs.  Don’t forget the eggs.  

Read it and reap the rewards of Benioff's enormous talent.  Apparently his mistress is still beguiled by his charms.

Nota Bene to the author of the Courtyard Hound :

She will leave you.  That is a given.  What you must do is maintain.  Don't panic.  The worst thing you can ever do, in your life is panic, ever.  The second worst thing you can do is panic. The third worst is to stalk her. Desperation might make men do desperate things, but talent does not bed down with a desperate man.  Even if against all odds you somehow charmed (face it; you begged) her into a second run, she will be sullen, bitter, morose and aloof.  Of those four aloof is the worst.  

Stay cool and you are ahead of the game from the start, because you already know one day she will go walkabout.  This little nugget of foresight gives you the opportunity to dance with her until the last bead of sweat has dripped from her nose.   Hey!  She'll like it, and maybe hang around for a bit more.  When she does finally leave you, grow a pair and let her go.  Kiss her goodbye, tell her thank you.  Tell her that you're a better man because of her, wish her well, and when she's gone, Brendan, my boy, my advice to you is start drinking heavily.

All you others, know this.  If she comes back, it will be to the man she first met, not the one she left.