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A review by treedog669
Telluria by Vladimir Sorokin
5.0
Wow.
The book is a strange start, but it just gets better and better, painting a new world that is oh-so-familiar: Europe, Russia, and China are split into near-feudal elements, and life is miserable for everyone. There are elves, giants ("big'uns"), and tiny fairies ("littl'uns"), and everyone is just trying to live. These vignettes always feature Tellurium, a drug, in some capacity. Once you begin to see that, you now start to see people not dependent upon it, but desperate for it, desperate for hope of a different future, desperate for something to take them away.
Chapters 39-41 offer a brilliant and sorrowful take on Russia, which strikes a certain note of familiarity as it honestly feels like we are on the brink of WW3.
The vignettes are simply beautiful. There are a handful that don't make as much sense, but the second half of the book is far better than the first half, which is still pretty good.
Drugs are sometimes difficult to discuss because there is the conflation of the high as well as the addiction. Telluria does not appear to cause any chemical addiction in and of itself — plus it's too expensive to get addicted to — so we really just see people's desire for its high from a psychological standpoint. I particularly love the story of the factory worker who, in a breathless letter to his boss, asks for money so he can see his dead brother again.
Max Lawton is a brilliant translator. I look forward to reading more of Sorokin's works and Lawton's works.
The book is a strange start, but it just gets better and better, painting a new world that is oh-so-familiar: Europe, Russia, and China are split into near-feudal elements, and life is miserable for everyone. There are elves, giants ("big'uns"), and tiny fairies ("littl'uns"), and everyone is just trying to live. These vignettes always feature Tellurium, a drug, in some capacity. Once you begin to see that, you now start to see people not dependent upon it, but desperate for it, desperate for hope of a different future, desperate for something to take them away.
Chapters 39-41 offer a brilliant and sorrowful take on Russia, which strikes a certain note of familiarity as it honestly feels like we are on the brink of WW3.
The vignettes are simply beautiful. There are a handful that don't make as much sense, but the second half of the book is far better than the first half, which is still pretty good.
Drugs are sometimes difficult to discuss because there is the conflation of the high as well as the addiction. Telluria does not appear to cause any chemical addiction in and of itself — plus it's too expensive to get addicted to — so we really just see people's desire for its high from a psychological standpoint. I particularly love the story of the factory worker who, in a breathless letter to his boss, asks for money so he can see his dead brother again.
Max Lawton is a brilliant translator. I look forward to reading more of Sorokin's works and Lawton's works.