Scan barcode
booitsnathalie's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Have been wanting to read this since falling in love with Tarkovsky' "Stalker" and found it just as gripping as the movie (though the similarities are less pronounced than you may expect). Everything that comes out of Roadside Picnic has such a singular mood (run down, labor oriented, darkly humorous, pessimistic about if technology is improving society), and the book does a great job sketching its world just sharply enough to ground the reader while rarely adding uneeded specificity. Everyone is screwed and scrappy and only seeing half of how they fit into the industrial machine they power.
I don't know enough about Soviet fiction to speak to what histories this book is in conversation with. The analogies that spring to mind feel both too obvious to be interesting and too flat for how ambiguous so much about The Zone and it's impact remain. Will be interested to see what interpretations have sprouted up over the last several decades, but even as just a sensory experience Roadside Picnic is riveting.
I don't know enough about Soviet fiction to speak to what histories this book is in conversation with. The analogies that spring to mind feel both too obvious to be interesting and too flat for how ambiguous so much about The Zone and it's impact remain. Will be interested to see what interpretations have sprouted up over the last several decades, but even as just a sensory experience Roadside Picnic is riveting.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia
Minor: Sexism
More...