English: Day of the Oprichnik First published in 2006, Sorokin's novel imagines a totalitarian Russia under a tsar a.k.a. Putin in 2027, and you probabEnglish: Day of the Oprichnik First published in 2006, Sorokin's novel imagines a totalitarian Russia under a tsar a.k.a. Putin in 2027, and you probably have to call it a dystopian satire, but looking at the genocide campaign in Ukraine, fueled by soldiers and mercenaries hired to disregard all rules and to turn the region into a real-life torture and gore hell, it's not far off from our reality. The plot is structured around one day in the life of Andrej Danilowitsch Komjaga, who, as the narrator, takes us along for a day in his life as a Oprichnik, so a member of the elite unit that helps to keep the state running by means of, you know, murder, rape, violence, degradation, fear, and general ruthlessness - if that rings a bell, it's probably because people tend to mysteriously disappear and / or die in Russia if they dare to speak up.
So Komjaga participates in the awesome and not at all pathetic rituals of toxic masculinity, like violent rampages, drugs, orgies based on sexual degradation, and riding bare-chested through the tundra or so (find the mistake! :-)). The isolated and nationalist state has turned into one neurotic cage based on power kayfabe. I also howled over the gas line to Europe, which in its real form (Nord Stream 1 and 2) was of course a HUGE political topic in Germany and on the whole continent (see the new EU Industrial Plan for the Green Deal, a billion Euro project to fight off energy and resource dependency). Sorokin saw it coming. The book also features a "Great Russian Wall" which, *aaarrrrghhhh*, .... I'm German, so you can guess how I feel about walls as a geopolitical idea (spoiler alert: It's shit).
The tricky thing here is that on the one hand, Sorokin seems to work with many, many references to classic Russian literature that, let's not kid ourselves, I miss. And then, this is a story that I feel that I heard for a thousand times, because it's way too easy to say that what we get here is a a critique of Soviet-style Russia - it's also fascist Germany and Italy, it's the fever dream of the American right, it's English colonialism, it's African dictatorships, etc. pp. It's all the same story, over and over again, and that's kind of the point of the book as well: Frequently helped by its own people, a caste of military and financial power players subjugates everything under their own interests, which they pretend is the nation's interest, and their status is upheld by those who get crumbs of the profit. What differs are only the lies to justify inexcusable actions. Still, it does not render the whole thing more interesting on the plot-level.
I'm very conflicted, because the novel reaches its intended effect, it does exactly what it aims to do, and I'm still bothered: It's fueled by raw anger, which turns the dire jokes lame and works to the detriment of nuance and aesthetic quality. But this anger is so justified and needs to get its space, and that's probably how the book needs to be judged....more
This Russian bestseller has recently been turned into a movie that already won the Vulcan Award for cinematography at the Cannes Film Festival, now thThis Russian bestseller has recently been turned into a movie that already won the Vulcan Award for cinematography at the Cannes Film Festival, now the translations are starting to pop up. Stoic protagonist and aspiring cartoonist Petrow has experienced the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now it's the mid-noughties, he works as a car mechanic and lives in Yekaterinburg at the Ural with his (ex-)wife (Petrowa) and young son (Petrow Jr.). As the title tells us, Petrow is sick, but lives in a pre-Corona world: He, his whole family and many other citizens have caught the flu, a hallucinatory atmosphere fueled by fever and medication permeates the text - or is the collapse between the real and the surreal due to the powers of trickster Igor? In many flashbacks and through conversations, the story presents the contrast between SU and contemporary Russian society, and humorously critiques the (unhealthy) state of affairs, stressing disorientation, loneliness and decay.
The book starts with Petrow going on a drinking binge, later we meet his librarian wife and learn about her violent urges. Many hilarious and grotesque details and outrageous micro-plotlines are interspersed with literal fever dreams that evoke states of psychological emergency, and it's all rather ambitious and inventive. What challenges me though is the reliance on lengthy, intricate descriptions of everyday scenes: Sure, it's a stylistic choice to speak about greater issues by dissecting apparently minor occurrences, but the detailed scenes illuminated in slow pacing are frequently tedious to read, IMHO, even if they are sometimes contrasted with sparse action sequences.
We learn about the Soviet Jolka festivities (introduced in 1937 as an alternative version of Western Christmas), public transportation, everyday conversations etc. pp. The clash of tradition and cold modernity leads to a stasis that immobilizes the novel's personnel, and even Petrow Jr., the future of this society, is already lost. Salnikov's biting sarcasm is both hilarious and depressing.
An interesting read for those who want to dive into psychological ponderings about the state of Russian society, but not without humor....more
Russian literary superstar Sorokin predicts the end of Putin and the dictator's fall from his crumbling pyramid of power here. In this collection of sRussian literary superstar Sorokin predicts the end of Putin and the dictator's fall from his crumbling pyramid of power here. In this collection of short stories, an invisible red pyramid radiates noise that infiltrates the Russian people - sounds familiar? Sorokin's often crass texts investigate the demoralization, brutality, and psychological deformation of post-Soviet Russia. What the mind suppresses comes back as dreams or impulsive violence. A whole country turns into a grotesque with nuclear sugar fields.
No wonder the ruling regime despises Sorokin: He wants a better Russia. ...more
DNF @ 30% (the annex starts at 78%). This book hardly deals with Stalin's library; mostly, it's a shaky biography / history book, interspersed with meDNF @ 30% (the annex starts at 78%). This book hardly deals with Stalin's library; mostly, it's a shaky biography / history book, interspersed with mentions that Stalin was a voracious reader who accumulated a large library. I expected this to be an investigation into the question how specific texts were read and interpreted by Stalin, as he was keen on annotating his volumes, and how his reading shaped his politics and policies and thus: world history. But no: The book meanders and lacks focus and depth.
What we can do now: Educate ourselves further. This book is one more example that what is now discussed in the media regarding Putin's outlook on histWhat we can do now: Educate ourselves further. This book is one more example that what is now discussed in the media regarding Putin's outlook on history and Russia's role in it has been well-known, and there is tons of research on it (#TeamPoliSci). There is a lot to know about Czarist Russia, the Sowjet Union, transformational societies in Eastern Europe post-1991 and the wars Russia has led since then, but also about Western diplomacy, politics and its failures. Definitely also check out The Light that Failed: A Reckoning, it's eye-opening (and, especially for a German who can experience the divide between East and West in their own country, very sad)....more
Longlisted for the German Book Prize 2021 Disclaimer: Salzmann identifies as non-binary and uses the pronoun sie* (= she*). After reading Beside Myself,Longlisted for the German Book Prize 2021 Disclaimer: Salzmann identifies as non-binary and uses the pronoun sie* (= she*). After reading Beside Myself, the debut novel of acclaimed theater writer Salzmann, I tipped this sophomore effort to be on the longlist before I even read it - the first book showed so much potential, and now, Salzmann can bring it into full effect. She* writes about the implosion of the Sowjet Union with the narrative help of a faun, Pirosmani's painting "Giraffe", Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex, and I am here for it. This is high literature and a pageturner, a text about an important topic that is also a joy to read - this is the stuff I want to see on book prize lists.
The story centres on two mothers who emigrated from the Ukraine to Germany in the mid-90's and their daughters, with Lena being the center of the first part of the novel. We learn about her childhood in the SU and her hometown of Gorlowka (Ukraine), how she experienced the Perestroika, we hear about the way the system with its injustice, corruption and greed influenced her life and her dream of becoming a doctor. The grand finale in the second part is Lena's fiftieth birthday party which takes place in Jena, Germany, in the year 2017 - but until then, we also learn about her daughter Edita, an aspiring journalist, her friend Tatjana and Tatjana's daughter Nina.
This novel shows how you explain international politics by pointing to the people it directly affects: The Perestroika becomes the "meat grinder", Salzmann writes about Chechnya, Ukraine, Georgia, Abkhazia, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and even the AfD (a German right-wing party). She ties all these aspects to concrete characters, thus preventing her novel from becoming a tractate, pamphlet or misconstrued think piece (hello, Blaue Frau), and while Salzmann grew up in Moscow and came to Germany at 10 years old, this is also not a memoir which suddenly seems to be a genre that falls under "fiction" and is thus eligible for the book prize (hello, Vati, Vater und ich, Der versperrte Weg: Roman des Bruders).
While the first part of Salzmann's novel is more conventionally told, thus reminiscent of The Eighth Life, part two is more unusual, focusing on the experiences of the daughters who try to escape the intergenerational trauma while also aiming to understand the older generations. I have to quote this unsettling passage, referring to Edita's perspective: "Kein Mensch würde sie dazu kriegen, mit diesen diktaturgeschädigten Jammerlappen, diesen Perestroika-Zombies ein Wochenende in Thüringen zu verbringen, wo gerade eine Partei zur zweitstärksten politischen Kraft gewählt worden war, die Leute wie Edi...ja, was? Eben genau das: Die versprach, Leute wie Edi und ihre Freunde und alles, woran sie glaubten, wie ein Schiff zu entern und dann im Ozean zu versenken." Wow, that hurts.
The title of the novel, "Everything in a person must be glorious", is a quote from Uncle Vanya, and Salzmann employs it as an example of a system using art against its citizens - because in the text, it's not the person who defines what glorious means. Full of strong imagery and metaphors, revealing different perspectives and smartly constructed, this is a novel to marvel at and a potential winner of the German Book Prize 2021 (although I'm still #TeamEurotrash)....more
Belton, former Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times, did TONS of research for this book, and she was able to put together a rather cohesive piBelton, former Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times, did TONS of research for this book, and she was able to put together a rather cohesive picture of how modern-day Russia has been shaped by "KGB capitalism". In the book, Putin's rise to power, his tactics to cement his position and his influence on American politics under Trump are shown as the consequence of a whole web of players and events: The members of the KGB, their ability to funnel money out of the collapsing SU, to control oligarchs who became rich off their backs and to bring the whole political system under their authoritarian control. But Belton has one major blind spot: She sees Russia more or less as a closed system, and this approach is rooted in the assumption that Putin and his people are bad. While this might be a valid conclusion for a non-fiction book, it's a terrible starting point, as it results in the whole book being overshadowed by confirmation bias: Let me show you how bad these people actually are! But what about the outside forces that (willingly and unwillingly) helped create this situation, i.e., the West, which means: What about our own responsibility?
Granted, Belton does sometimes mention that Western powers have enabled some of Putin's tactics or even profited from them, but this is not enough: The loss of the Soviet Empire had far-reaching consequences that have shaped real-life politics, as The Light that Failed: A Reckoning proves. These dynamics between West and East, and, consequently, how the West has also failed the East, is a sideshow in Belton's book, when indeed it is still a core factor in current events (as a German, I can re-assure you that more than 30 years after re-unification, the wounds in the East have not healed, and that there is a whole world of experience that I as a West German cannot access). And then, of course, the West tended to overlook Putin's ever-growing antics to secure its own interests in (e.g.) the energy sector - which, as it turns out, didn't secure anything at all and became one of the roots of a historic guilt the West can never make up for: The Ukrainian war.
Putin has helped create a terrible, cynic, self-serving regime that couldn't care less about the well-being of the Russian people - but the fact that the West tends to isolate the problem, portraying it as being solely "Russian" is just way to easy if you really intend to build a better future. The West has to face its own mistakes regarding its behavior towards Russia in order to not repeat them (btw, what Trump has done in the US imitates what happened in Russia). It's a little complacent to write a book that simply starts and concludes with: "Putin = bad".
Still, this book is filled to the brim with meticulously researched information and does a great job putting together a very difficult puzzle, because the KGB has put in quite some effort to hide core pieces. So as a basis for further discussion, this is a great book, but it needs some extra reflection about the greater scheme of things....more
Russian poets found a suicide cult, mayhem ensues, various agents with different agendas try to end the ungodly epidemic - this is a rough summary of Russian poets found a suicide cult, mayhem ensues, various agents with different agendas try to end the ungodly epidemic - this is a rough summary of the plot of Akunin's mystery. This author is not only a very successful translator and writer of detective fiction, he is also an outspoken critic of Putin, and while "She Lover of Death" does not directly address the current political situation, the central theme is psychological manipulation, in this case the ability to convince people that death is an actual person who summons his disciples to a beautiful demise. Yes, the victims in this crime story do apparently kill themselves, they buy into a deception that is crafted in a way that appeals to their personal urges and longings - go figure. Btw: "Akunin" means "bad person" in Japanese, and B. Akunin refers to the Russian anarchist Michail Bakunin.
But back to the story: The plot largely revolves around a young woman from the Siberian province who comes to Moscow trying to re-invent herself as the mysterious "Columbine". Out of curiosity, she joins the suicide cult, the "Lovers of Death", and becomes the prime example showing the reader how a person comes to buy into such an outrageous scam. The story is partly written from her perspective, and in other parts composed of newspaper articles about the suicides and the club, of reports by an anonymous informant to the police and of a third-person narrative.
The changing form gives the novel a nice dynamic, altough the story does have some lenghts. Bit by bit, the author reveals the intentions of the club's doge and several members, questioning who the club members really are and what drives their behavior. In the end (and in classic style), we get a big reveal.
I really liked that this murder mystery contemplates psychological violence, and not by scaring or pressuring the victims, but by giving them something that is framed to appear like love, beauty and adventure, but in truth only follows a manipulative agenda that is all about power. In the middle section, the text offers some unnecessary detours that result in lenghts, the poems written by the cult members read like parodies of Andreas Gryphius' texts, and the female figures are not exactly painted in a progressive light, but this is a smart mystery that is fun to read....more
I refuse to believe that our common future is already history, but I feel like to make a future for my continent happen, we all need to get as many faI refuse to believe that our common future is already history, but I feel like to make a future for my continent happen, we all need to get as many facts as possible and join the public conversation....more
After her alcoholic mother lost custody of ten-year-old Sophia Shalmiyev, her father emigrated with her from Leningrad to the United States - as they After her alcoholic mother lost custody of ten-year-old Sophia Shalmiyev, her father emigrated with her from Leningrad to the United States - as they left the USSR in 1989, Shalmiyev not only lost her biological mother, but her home country collapsed and vanished behind her. In her memoir, which is also the author's literary debut, we learn about Shalmiyev's childhood and adolescence which were overshadowed by her mother's illness and excess as well as her father's violence, about her trip back to (now) St. Petersburg to find her lost mother as well as her journey to become a mother herself.
While the story is certainly affecting and interesting, what sets this memoir apart is the lyrical composition of the text - which is unfortunately also the source of some of its problems. But first things first: I applaud Shalmiyev for being daring and ambitious, for venturing out into poetry, art and history and for trying to find a unique und recognizable voice. I rather see someone aim for something bold and courageous and maybe not quite getting there (yet), instead of reading a text which is suffocated by conventionalism - and you certainly can't accuse this author for being overtly conventional.
The two dominant narrative strategies Shalmiyev employs are playing with poetic images and ideas - like numbers or descriptions of nature - and making connections to famous people, often women, from Sappho to Aileen Wuornos and Malala. And of course there is the underlying theme of the lost mother, which is at the center of the whole text (the book cover shows a picture of her). Especially the poetic images are sometimes overreaching and underline how hard this author is trying - again, I want my writers to work hard, but some of the numerous vignettes are just overdone and make the writing feel forced (I can't quote from the text because I have an ARC). Authors like Terese Marie Mailhot show that it is possible to write a highly poetic memoir without falling into these traps.
Still, this book is well worth reading, as it is surely fascinating to follow Shalmiyev in her lyrical adventure. I think this author has the potential to one day write a novel that will blow all of us away. Until then, you can also have a look at the pictures on her website which illustrate some scenes in "Mother Winter": https://www.sophiashalmiyev.com/about/ (scroll down!)...more
Strangely, this book reminded me of the stories my father, who was a policeman, told me about the time he spent in Belarus in the context of his job. Strangely, this book reminded me of the stories my father, who was a policeman, told me about the time he spent in Belarus in the context of his job. After seeing the police system there and talking to people who, from an outside point of view, were assigned to do the same job that he did in Germany, he explained that he became painfully aware of the fact that when a profession is turned into a travesty, it destroys those who chose the job based on their convictions and their wish to live up to its ideals. Who should the policemen in Belarus protect: The state? The people? Which group of people exactly? They have to decide, and no matter how they decide, the price they have to pay will always be too high.
Shostakovich is in a comparable position: He believes in the value and merit of his work, but he cannot realize his artistic ideals because the state instrumentalizes music to manifest and expand its power, and so as a composer, he is expected to conform to what “the power” declares to be communist aesthetic ideals. The resulting self-alienation Shostakovich experiences becomes so profound that he feels like it would be more honorable and more merciful to be dead than to go on making compromises that slowly kill his self-respect. So in a way, Shostakovich’s moral dilemma stands pars pro toto for the experience that millions of people shared under the communist rule (an experience that is typical for all types of dictatorial/authoritarian regimes).
I feel like Barnes did not aim to write a comprehensive biography of Shostakovich, as he focuses mainly on the influence the state exerted on him and what this must have meant for the composer. The relationship with friends and family or even the process of composing music is not what Barnes wanted to explore. I liked the way the story is framed, as it allows the author to insert paragraphs that discuss the ongoing dynamic on a meta-level, going deeper into the psychology of authoritarianism, fear, and state terror.
Clearly, there is a reason why Barnes wrote about a composer and not a policeman: It is the job of an artist to express himself, a right that is fundamental to our understanding of freedom and human dignity. Nevertheless, the questions whether there are limits to artistic freedom remains extremely relevant, and while most people, at least in Western democracies, would probably agree that it is wrong to turn art into a tool to maintain political power, there are still plenty of contested areas. For example, free art needs to have the right to be offensive, but how offensive exactly, and who gets to decide what’s offensive in the first place?
4 stars would probably be a fair rating for this book, but as I really like fictional books with a strong and smart take on politics, plus the question of artistic freedom seems extremely current to me, I will rate it 5 stars....more
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