A review by rosseroo
Thirst by Marian Schwartz, Andrey Gelasimov, Андрей Геласимов

2.0

I enjoy literature from around the world, and I'm interested in post-Soviet Russia, but this sparse novella failed to engage me. It follows a severely scarred young man named Konstantin, who was in an APC that was blown up during the first Chechen War (circa 1994-96). He now lives a quasi-hermetic existence as a self-employed apartment renovator and sometime drunk. The story (which seems to take place sometime in the mid to late 1990s, since no one seems to have a cell phone or computer) follows him and two Army buddies as they try to track down a fourth Army buddy who has gone missing. There are flashbacks detailing his childhood, his philandering and then absent father, and the schoolmaster who nurtured his gift for drawing. But none of this held much depth or resonance for me. I suppose you could say it's a book about how one does, or doesn't, deal with the disappointments and traumas of life, but it's just too spare and thin for me to connect with.