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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
medium-paced
I suspect that an *awful lot* of this book is lost in translation, particularly on those of us who don't have a strong command of Russian history. Mine ... exists, but it's not great, and I wouldn't recommend reading this in translation.
“Day of the Oprichnik” is essentially a slice of life political satire dystopian novel about a member of the secret police in futuristic medieval oppressive Russia. Vladimir Sorokin is a prominent contemporary Russian writer, whose “Day of the Oprichnik” got nominated to Booker Prize, was published in 10 languages and got a sequel in a form of a collection of short stories “Sugar Kremlin”. Vladimir Sorokin is mostly a political writer, postmodernist, playwright and a screenwriter with several Russian awards, and some international such as “Liberty Award”, “Gorky’s Award” and a Prize from the German ministry of culture.
In so much as the “Brave New World” is a critique of exaggerated consumerism obsessions that is called by some a prophetic book alongside “1984”, “Day of the Oprichnik” is a critique of relatively not so far-fetched outcomes of policies and consequences of modern Russia, more akin to the latter rather than the former. Middle of XXI century Russia is a scary place – secret police (oprichnina) is revived from the middle ages when it was first established by Ivan the Terrible, oppressive government controls all the production and industry, loaded propaganda facilitates archaic mindset and imaginary Slavic/Russian national idea, power is guarded and people are segregated. The wealthy now do not have four wall-sized monitors to talk to their “relatives”, they have nice wooden “Izbushkas” that will be set on fire if they fall out of authorities’ favour. Now, from each according to his status, to each according to his status, where the higher your status, the less you give and the more you take. It is both futuristic and archaic, satirizing and analytical, operating with familiar to make it grotesque to the point of self-refectory disgust. The protagonist is a member of said secret police – an oprichnik of high status, burning homes in the mornings and counting income from racket in the evening. Through his entrusted in the high position of power eyes, the reader can see all the levels of satire Sorokin layers on the social ladder of futuristic Russia, from slaving peasants to manipulative and perverted powers that be. Although it is convention to the “slice-of-life” genre to not develop heroes all that much, to end where all starts, the background that Sorokin presents for the story of one day is something that I would claim as a character in the novel. That background, directly presented, talked about in dialogue, described through some objects or symbols can be seen as the “main subject” of the novel. The background is the state of Russia in the middle of XXI century – oppressive regime spiraling into an archaic regression, unsaved by the scientific progress and isolated within its walls. The themes of imaginary or propaganda-painted enemies, self-sufficient and self-centered existence of state, power of the state and not the citizen, oppression of the nation, segregation by multitude of factors are the themes that are talked all too often and all too seriously in the context of modern Russia, their resonance leaves no other alternative than to take them seriously, even if aided by a fiction book to do so. Sorokin wrote the book “Day of the Oprichnik” in 2006, and in the interview by Colta in 2012 he said that “It has become common to see his novel and its sequel as prophetic in last three years” (http://archives.colta.ru/docs/9285). As a political writer and a postmodernist, Sorokin is very generous with connections to real people and current problems that Russia and the world face, too much to recognize in one read-through. And as the protagonist would say: “thank god for that”. Read it if not for the love of dystopias, political critique and recognized mastery of the author, then for its relevancy to the modern.
In so much as the “Brave New World” is a critique of exaggerated consumerism obsessions that is called by some a prophetic book alongside “1984”, “Day of the Oprichnik” is a critique of relatively not so far-fetched outcomes of policies and consequences of modern Russia, more akin to the latter rather than the former. Middle of XXI century Russia is a scary place – secret police (oprichnina) is revived from the middle ages when it was first established by Ivan the Terrible, oppressive government controls all the production and industry, loaded propaganda facilitates archaic mindset and imaginary Slavic/Russian national idea, power is guarded and people are segregated. The wealthy now do not have four wall-sized monitors to talk to their “relatives”, they have nice wooden “Izbushkas” that will be set on fire if they fall out of authorities’ favour. Now, from each according to his status, to each according to his status, where the higher your status, the less you give and the more you take. It is both futuristic and archaic, satirizing and analytical, operating with familiar to make it grotesque to the point of self-refectory disgust. The protagonist is a member of said secret police – an oprichnik of high status, burning homes in the mornings and counting income from racket in the evening. Through his entrusted in the high position of power eyes, the reader can see all the levels of satire Sorokin layers on the social ladder of futuristic Russia, from slaving peasants to manipulative and perverted powers that be. Although it is convention to the “slice-of-life” genre to not develop heroes all that much, to end where all starts, the background that Sorokin presents for the story of one day is something that I would claim as a character in the novel. That background, directly presented, talked about in dialogue, described through some objects or symbols can be seen as the “main subject” of the novel. The background is the state of Russia in the middle of XXI century – oppressive regime spiraling into an archaic regression, unsaved by the scientific progress and isolated within its walls. The themes of imaginary or propaganda-painted enemies, self-sufficient and self-centered existence of state, power of the state and not the citizen, oppression of the nation, segregation by multitude of factors are the themes that are talked all too often and all too seriously in the context of modern Russia, their resonance leaves no other alternative than to take them seriously, even if aided by a fiction book to do so. Sorokin wrote the book “Day of the Oprichnik” in 2006, and in the interview by Colta in 2012 he said that “It has become common to see his novel and its sequel as prophetic in last three years” (http://archives.colta.ru/docs/9285). As a political writer and a postmodernist, Sorokin is very generous with connections to real people and current problems that Russia and the world face, too much to recognize in one read-through. And as the protagonist would say: “thank god for that”. Read it if not for the love of dystopias, political critique and recognized mastery of the author, then for its relevancy to the modern.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
🐛🐛🐛🐛
Although I try to not deep-dive too hard on one author at a time, one thing led to another and I read all four of the Sorokin books I own in quick bear-succession. I tried to write near-succession and my phone autocorrected to bear-succession (because it can see the bear on the cover??), proving yet again that AI is scary both in how right it can think it is and in how wrong it can actually be.
Anyway, thinking you’re right when you’re dangerously wrong is fitting for this review, since it’s how I figure Sorokin means us to see main character Komiaga and his murderous, treacherous, pious actions done as an oprichnik, a brutal enforcer in the service of Russia’s government. Komiaga loves his country and believes his drugs, rape, murder and pillage to be done in “faith” to His Majesty. All in a day’s work!
Men behaving badly in the name of service to God, country or king is nothing new. But this is Sorokin so you know it’s gonna get weird. And although this doesn’t go as buck crazy as some of his other work, it has its obscene horrendous moments. And some funny moments. And the best moments which are funny AND obscene AND horrendous. 🐛
(I really hope someone knows why this emoji is here)
#2024books
Although I try to not deep-dive too hard on one author at a time, one thing led to another and I read all four of the Sorokin books I own in quick bear-succession. I tried to write near-succession and my phone autocorrected to bear-succession (because it can see the bear on the cover??), proving yet again that AI is scary both in how right it can think it is and in how wrong it can actually be.
Anyway, thinking you’re right when you’re dangerously wrong is fitting for this review, since it’s how I figure Sorokin means us to see main character Komiaga and his murderous, treacherous, pious actions done as an oprichnik, a brutal enforcer in the service of Russia’s government. Komiaga loves his country and believes his drugs, rape, murder and pillage to be done in “faith” to His Majesty. All in a day’s work!
Men behaving badly in the name of service to God, country or king is nothing new. But this is Sorokin so you know it’s gonna get weird. And although this doesn’t go as buck crazy as some of his other work, it has its obscene horrendous moments. And some funny moments. And the best moments which are funny AND obscene AND horrendous. 🐛
(I really hope someone knows why this emoji is here)
#2024books
66th book of 2021. Artist for this review is Russian painter Konstantin Yuon (1875-1958).
3.5. Wild: violence, rape, drugs: utterly bizarre and over-the-top. Sorokin's dystopian vision of 2028 is hardly imaginable as prophetic, but an interesting look nonetheless. And contextually it plays a large role in a pool of Russian fiction, but I'll get to that later. It has been interesting reading this immediately off the back of Zamyatin's We, which must have been somewhere in Sorokin's mind when writing a Russian dystopian. The only striking similarity is the idea of a Wall that separates Russia from its neighbours, or in the case of We, the forgotten outside world.
Sorokin's unlikely vision of a 2028 future (published in 2006) is a world where the Tsardom of Russia has been restored and the protagonist (Komiaga) is an Oprichnik, a "government henchman", a sort of Gestapo-like figure. They kill the enemies of the state, rape their wives, burn their properties. They also seem to take a copious amount of very bizarre drugs; one instance: Komiaga acquires a tank of tiny golden fish which the Oprichniks put into their veins and allow the fish to swim into their bloodstreams and consequently have a collective trip together (where they become a many-headed dragon). At another point in the novel they take tablets and their ballsacks glow. So between violence and raping and sex, the book becomes a strange mix of A Clockwork Orange, Fahrenheit 451, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (or any PKD novel filled with drug-use/abuse) and We.
"Planet"—1921
It gets quite extreme. At one point there's a giant homosexual-penetration scene where they become a caterpillar of penetration. There's the description of systematic rape fairly near the start of the novel too. The drug-use is mostly bizarre and entertaining. The murder is comical almost. In a way, it's a sick sort of tragicomedy about Russia. One review, by Victoria Nelson, summed it up nicely: "It's an outrageous, salacious, over-the-top tragicomic depiction of an utterly depraved social order whose absolute monarch (referred to only as "His Majesty") is a blatant conflation of the country's current president with its ferocious 16th-century absolute monarch known as Ivan Grozny." The rape of the woman in the beginning is justified by its unifying nature, that each having a turn raping the same woman made the Oprichniks feel togetherness, as a we, as a system, a collected identity. Overall the novel is an interesting (sickly so) and bizarre novel of violence and vague ideas of Russia and a persistent Soviet mentality, persisting to 2028.
"People"—1923
***************************************
It is a single day, one day, in the life of this Oprichnik, which seemed similar, of course, to Solzhenitsyn's novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. It turns out Sorokin doesn't like Solzhenitsyn, as a man or as a writer. Apparently the novel is also a parody of the 1927 novel Behind the Thistle by General Pyotr Krasnov, but as I haven't read it, I can't comment. I read a fair amount about it and the connections but don't feel qualified to report it here. There is also a giant influence from a Russian literary thinker, Mikhail Bakhtin, and his ideas of the collective grotesque body. A lot going on in the background of this seemingly ridiculous novel. Sorokin is regarded as one of the greatest living Russian novelists and his Ice Trilogy looks excellent. I think I'll be moving there next.
Sorokin
3.5. Wild: violence, rape, drugs: utterly bizarre and over-the-top. Sorokin's dystopian vision of 2028 is hardly imaginable as prophetic, but an interesting look nonetheless. And contextually it plays a large role in a pool of Russian fiction, but I'll get to that later. It has been interesting reading this immediately off the back of Zamyatin's We, which must have been somewhere in Sorokin's mind when writing a Russian dystopian. The only striking similarity is the idea of a Wall that separates Russia from its neighbours, or in the case of We, the forgotten outside world.
Sorokin's unlikely vision of a 2028 future (published in 2006) is a world where the Tsardom of Russia has been restored and the protagonist (Komiaga) is an Oprichnik, a "government henchman", a sort of Gestapo-like figure. They kill the enemies of the state, rape their wives, burn their properties. They also seem to take a copious amount of very bizarre drugs; one instance: Komiaga acquires a tank of tiny golden fish which the Oprichniks put into their veins and allow the fish to swim into their bloodstreams and consequently have a collective trip together (where they become a many-headed dragon). At another point in the novel they take tablets and their ballsacks glow. So between violence and raping and sex, the book becomes a strange mix of A Clockwork Orange, Fahrenheit 451, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (or any PKD novel filled with drug-use/abuse) and We.
"Planet"—1921
It gets quite extreme. At one point there's a giant homosexual-penetration scene where they become a caterpillar of penetration. There's the description of systematic rape fairly near the start of the novel too. The drug-use is mostly bizarre and entertaining. The murder is comical almost. In a way, it's a sick sort of tragicomedy about Russia. One review, by Victoria Nelson, summed it up nicely: "It's an outrageous, salacious, over-the-top tragicomic depiction of an utterly depraved social order whose absolute monarch (referred to only as "His Majesty") is a blatant conflation of the country's current president with its ferocious 16th-century absolute monarch known as Ivan Grozny." The rape of the woman in the beginning is justified by its unifying nature, that each having a turn raping the same woman made the Oprichniks feel togetherness, as a we, as a system, a collected identity. Overall the novel is an interesting (sickly so) and bizarre novel of violence and vague ideas of Russia and a persistent Soviet mentality, persisting to 2028.
"People"—1923
***************************************
It is a single day, one day, in the life of this Oprichnik, which seemed similar, of course, to Solzhenitsyn's novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. It turns out Sorokin doesn't like Solzhenitsyn, as a man or as a writer. Apparently the novel is also a parody of the 1927 novel Behind the Thistle by General Pyotr Krasnov, but as I haven't read it, I can't comment. I read a fair amount about it and the connections but don't feel qualified to report it here. There is also a giant influence from a Russian literary thinker, Mikhail Bakhtin, and his ideas of the collective grotesque body. A lot going on in the background of this seemingly ridiculous novel. Sorokin is regarded as one of the greatest living Russian novelists and his Ice Trilogy looks excellent. I think I'll be moving there next.
Sorokin
i am not nearly smart enough to figure out what the fuck this guy is on about
also maybe not a book to read in 20 minutes a day on bumpy roads at 7am but I did not have fun and then it got weeeeeird i just don’t know what I’m supposed to take away
also maybe not a book to read in 20 minutes a day on bumpy roads at 7am but I did not have fun and then it got weeeeeird i just don’t know what I’m supposed to take away
Whew, what an insane little journey. Makes no sense but still makes more sense than what's real today, if that makes any sense. Savage and filthy and as finely pointed as a diamond drill tip (or a different sort of diamond drill, if you know what I mean). Not sure it all hangs together? But as far as fever dreams go, a compelling one.