Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin

 A friend recommended a Russian scifi novel to me. So I thought I'd give it a try. Not sure I recommend it, but it was well worth the read.


Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin

In a scarily believable, near-future Russia, a distant monarch rules with the aid of oprichniks, who ease their own trials with strange new drugs and violence. Rape is punishment, collectively carried out with nauseous obedience. And the evil West is walled away, blamed safely for all ills. Could it happen here? There? Wherever? With dark humor and gritty realism, the author suggests there are devils deep in us all, and the urge to live might all too easily become the urge to harm.

Day of the Oprichnik tells a single day through the eyes of a singularly unsympathetic protagonist, and keeps the reader glued to the page through many harms, idiocies, and evils, leaving the reader to decide just how wrong something has to be to become truly evil.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Connect those Connections

Taken from a talk I gave on Sunday at the Writers' Mill. This is a very low-level approach to getting connected, from one beginner to another... Internet Writing, Marketing and Networking If you’ve got an email address you’re on the internet. If you’ve got a book out or an article in a magazine, you’re into marketing. If you’ve got friends, you’re networking. And if you use Google, you can do almost anything. Google Google is your friend. Google “how to join facebook” “How to join goodreads” “How to join Twitter” etc… Google “facebook badges” “blogger widgets” etc… to spice up your pages. Anything you want to know, a nice simple question to google will almost certainly tell you. But keep safe . Don’t just click on the first link you see. Make sure it looks vaguely genuine. “F*@!book.com/badges” might take you somewhere you don’t want your computer to go. “Facebook.com/badges” tells you all about badges. Why would you want to join all these interne...
Read more

Interview with Cheryl Snell, author of Shiva's Arms

Shiva's Arms is introduced on the back cover with the following quote: "Shame! This is your fault only," Amma yelled, shaking her fists. "You godless girl, you have weakened my family, my son's caste lost because of you!" "You're the one! You won't be satisfied until you've destroyed everything, smashed it to bits with your tiny bare feet!" Alice pointed to Amma's brown toes. Amma looked down and flexed them, the war suspended for a second until she ran to the kitchen. Pulse throbbing at her temples, Amma snatched a pair of pliers to her heaving chest, hiked up the hem of her sari, and scurried upstairs. I'm delighted to welcome Cheryl Snell to my blog today. She's answered a number of questions that I posed for her, and I'm sure she'll be happy to answer any other questions you'd care to ask in the comments: (My questions are in italics) 1. I've asked several authors this, and I always learn something ne...
Read more

Author or transcriber, reader or visitor, greatest or least? Meet Kathryn Elizabeth Jones

Image
 Today I'm delighted to welcome Kathryn Elizabeth Jones, author of " I walked with Jesus ," to my blog. I very much enjoyed her short stories retelling miracles from the life of Christ - we clearly have faith and short fiction in common with each other.  I loved how historical, real, and relevant Kathryn's stories felt. You can find my review here:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4904771188 . I'd love to meet the author and chat in person, but inviting her to my blog is the next best thing, so I asked her to let me and you how she finds her audience. Here's what she told me. Why I think my audience is beginning to find me by  Kathryn Elizabeth Jones One of the hardest things to do as an author, other than writing or marketing a book, is to find that often illusive audience. It’s easier with mysteries or children’s picture books, probably because you know who reads them; adults and teens who love sleuthing and children and their parents who love reading....
Read more