sennowa's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to like this book. I truly did. It has really interesting themes and I genuinely like non-Western post-apocalyptic fiction because the portrayal of it is just so different. Alas, I simply cannot get behind the main character and his approach to narration. I understand the choice of the character and his behavior says a lot about this fictional world, believe me, I do. The writing style put me off as well - it's /very/ Russian, and not in a good way. Reading (or rather, listening to) it in the language of the original just added to the obnoxious factor. The most interesting moments were the times when people around the main character were speaking, and my favorite characters were barely anywhere in the story. I'd give it a bonus 1/2 star for one character saying "For our freedom and for yours" if goodreads allowed that, though, that's the one bit I can say I absolutely liked about this.
quisby's review
4.0
Completely bananas post-apocalyptic satire that feels like Solzhenitsyn reinterpreted as a Looney Tunes cartoon. Brutal meditation on Russia and the intersection of power and culture. Also just a rip-roaring story.
cher_n_books's review
2.0
2.5 stars which officially and technically shall translate to "I liked it...a little bit". You know those old fashioned wooden roller coasters at small county fairs - that is what reading this book was for me. It took a while to get started and once it got going there were small thrills but mainly bumpy ups and downs with jolting turns, and at the end of the ride I was a bit disenchanted and bored. It never bodes well when you get excited that you only have X% or pages remaining.
I cannot even begin to imagine how difficult of a book this was to translate. There was a lot of play on words and lyrical prose at times, many relying on rhymes. Again, it had to be extremely difficult to stay true to the author's writing and translate with the same effects.
While this book was unpredictable, I discovered that unpredictable does not guarantee goodness. However, I did enjoy, and always enjoy, when authors display the precariousness of a government that overreaches and limits liberties. Towards the end of the book when Benedict and Father-in-law were arguing and FIL literally said, "Nanny nanny foo foo" I was caught off guard by their puerile behavior. It goes without saying this statement was also inaccurate. Everyone knows it is Nanny nanny boo boo, stick your head in doo doo. But then I realized that most modern societies (ahem, America) today also have politicians that are caught saying or doing shameful things and in general acting like petulant toddlers throwing a temper tantrum. Why do we allow such childish people to be in positions of power over us, let alone to limit our liberties??
Favorite quotes: Life is better when you've got a dream, and sleep is sweeter.
AND
If you feed and feed people, and keep on feeding them, they'll stop working. You'll be the only one sweating, all for them.
AND
Water and fire don't mix, they can't. Except, of course, when people stand watching a fire and the flames lap in their eyes in water, reflected.
First sentence: Benedikt pulled on his felt boots, stomped his feet to get the fit right, checked the damper on the stove, brushed the bread crumbs onto the floor--for the mice--wedged a rag in the window to keep out the cold, stepped out the door, and breathed the pure, frosty air in through his nostrils.
I cannot even begin to imagine how difficult of a book this was to translate. There was a lot of play on words and lyrical prose at times, many relying on rhymes. Again, it had to be extremely difficult to stay true to the author's writing and translate with the same effects.
While this book was unpredictable, I discovered that unpredictable does not guarantee goodness. However, I did enjoy, and always enjoy, when authors display the precariousness of a government that overreaches and limits liberties. Towards the end of the book when Benedict and Father-in-law were arguing and FIL literally said, "Nanny nanny foo foo" I was caught off guard by their puerile behavior. It goes without saying this statement was also inaccurate. Everyone knows it is Nanny nanny boo boo, stick your head in doo doo. But then I realized that most modern societies (ahem, America) today also have politicians that are caught saying or doing shameful things and in general acting like petulant toddlers throwing a temper tantrum. Why do we allow such childish people to be in positions of power over us, let alone to limit our liberties??
Favorite quotes: Life is better when you've got a dream, and sleep is sweeter.
AND
If you feed and feed people, and keep on feeding them, they'll stop working. You'll be the only one sweating, all for them.
AND
Water and fire don't mix, they can't. Except, of course, when people stand watching a fire and the flames lap in their eyes in water, reflected.
First sentence: Benedikt pulled on his felt boots, stomped his feet to get the fit right, checked the damper on the stove, brushed the bread crumbs onto the floor--for the mice--wedged a rag in the window to keep out the cold, stepped out the door, and breathed the pure, frosty air in through his nostrils.
elenajohansen's review against another edition
I'm leaving this unrated because I honestly don't know how to fit this experience into my usual system. DNF @ page 139, almost exactly halfway through.
I beat my head against this book off and on for two weeks and rarely felt like I was getting anywhere. At first, I was forgiving of the eternal state of "nothing really happens" because there was lots of interesting world-building to figure out and that kept me going. But eventually it became clear that there was no plot of any substance; or, if there is, I still haven't found the start of it even at the halfway mark.
That sounds like the sort of criticism I would level at a one-star book, but that feels wrong to me here, because despite this, I still somehow don't feel like the book is bad. It's brilliant in some aspects, I can see that even without finishing it. It's clearly got a lot to say about Russian society and communism and human nature; it's combining half a dozen genres to do it. I can't judge the translation on linguistic merits because I don't speak or read the slightest bit of Russian, but I get a good vibe from it, the same way I sometimes get a bad vibe from translated works when the English text doesn't seem to match the spirit or tone of the tale it's telling.
I'm just bouncing off of this. I thought at first this is too far outside my comfort zone, but saying that about post-apocalyptic fantasy feels odd, because that's one of my genres. I suppose it's the Russian literature part of this book's identity that's the snag for me. I genuinely want to read more world literature, only when I do, it often feels inaccessible, somehow, like I'll never understand it no matter how hard I try.
But that's a me problem, not the book's fault inherently. I wanted to like this, I didn't, but I can't point to flaws in the work itself, beyond that slow start to the story, to explain why it isn't clicking for me.
I beat my head against this book off and on for two weeks and rarely felt like I was getting anywhere. At first, I was forgiving of the eternal state of "nothing really happens" because there was lots of interesting world-building to figure out and that kept me going. But eventually it became clear that there was no plot of any substance; or, if there is, I still haven't found the start of it even at the halfway mark.
That sounds like the sort of criticism I would level at a one-star book, but that feels wrong to me here, because despite this, I still somehow don't feel like the book is bad. It's brilliant in some aspects, I can see that even without finishing it. It's clearly got a lot to say about Russian society and communism and human nature; it's combining half a dozen genres to do it. I can't judge the translation on linguistic merits because I don't speak or read the slightest bit of Russian, but I get a good vibe from it, the same way I sometimes get a bad vibe from translated works when the English text doesn't seem to match the spirit or tone of the tale it's telling.
I'm just bouncing off of this. I thought at first this is too far outside my comfort zone, but saying that about post-apocalyptic fantasy feels odd, because that's one of my genres. I suppose it's the Russian literature part of this book's identity that's the snag for me. I genuinely want to read more world literature, only when I do, it often feels inaccessible, somehow, like I'll never understand it no matter how hard I try.
But that's a me problem, not the book's fault inherently. I wanted to like this, I didn't, but I can't point to flaws in the work itself, beyond that slow start to the story, to explain why it isn't clicking for me.
martinat's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
megapolisomancy's review
2.0
Here is a paragraph from this book:
After the entrance there were more corridors and the sweet smell grew nearer. Glancing upward, Benedikt clasped his hands: books! The shelves were packed with books! Lord Almighty! Saints alive! his knees gave way, he trembled and whined softly: you couldn't read them all in a whole lifetime! A forest of pages, an endless, indiscriminate blizzard, uncounted! Ah...! Ah!!! Aaaaa! Maybe... just maybe... somewhere here... maybe the secret book is here somewhere! The book that tells you how to live, where to go, where to guide the heart! Maybe Fyodor Kuzmich, Glorybe, has found it, and is already reading it: he jumps up on the bed quick as a wink, and just reads and reads! He went and found it, the monster, and he's reading it!! The tyrant! Shit!
Seriously, could someone with a kindle tell me how many exclamation points are in this book? (can kindles do that?)*
Anyway it's 200 years after "the Blast" (nuclear war) ended civilization as we know it and we're in Moscow and everything is decrepit and falling apart and covered in mud and the bureaucracy controls everything and life, as it turns out, isn't that different, which seems to be Tolstaya's point.
Plot? There isn't one.
* While you're at it, why not count the words "whoa" and "yikes" too?
After the entrance there were more corridors and the sweet smell grew nearer. Glancing upward, Benedikt clasped his hands: books! The shelves were packed with books! Lord Almighty! Saints alive! his knees gave way, he trembled and whined softly: you couldn't read them all in a whole lifetime! A forest of pages, an endless, indiscriminate blizzard, uncounted! Ah...! Ah!!! Aaaaa! Maybe... just maybe... somewhere here... maybe the secret book is here somewhere! The book that tells you how to live, where to go, where to guide the heart! Maybe Fyodor Kuzmich, Glorybe, has found it, and is already reading it: he jumps up on the bed quick as a wink, and just reads and reads! He went and found it, the monster, and he's reading it!! The tyrant! Shit!
Seriously, could someone with a kindle tell me how many exclamation points are in this book? (can kindles do that?)*
Anyway it's 200 years after "the Blast" (nuclear war) ended civilization as we know it and we're in Moscow and everything is decrepit and falling apart and covered in mud and the bureaucracy controls everything and life, as it turns out, isn't that different, which seems to be Tolstaya's point.
Plot? There isn't one.
* While you're at it, why not count the words "whoa" and "yikes" too?