La tormenta

[Revised, edited for typos 10/8/22] A story, translated from Russian, that is part magical realism and part science fiction – a blend of old Russia and a post-apocalyptic futuristic Russia. Almost all of the action takes place in a Dr. Zhivago type sleigh ride during a week-long blinding blizzard acr Leggi tutto

The Blizzard is thoroughly stylized to the Russian classical fiction of the nineteenth century with an exception of the one little twist… And this little twist is a grand shift in reality… “Now, the lot of ye – we gonna go for a drive?” Crouper asked his horses, and they neighed even louder.The youn Leggi tutto

I finished re-reading The Blizzard this weekend and when I got to the end my feeling was one of exalted revelation. It felt like a completely different book from the last time. Once more I'm amazed at the way books can mean very different things, depending on who we are when we read them. This time f Leggi tutto

In the Russia of the novel, the proportions are not right: there is a miller of small stature who drinks his alcohol from a thimble, dwarf horses of the size of partridges and giants six metres tall. Reality is viewed through a distorted mirror, revealing its monstrosity and transporting it into a p Leggi tutto

This was another proof how much sheer serendipity and the timing affects the degree of book's enjoyment. I've read recently George Saunders's A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life . That book contained an analysis of a story previously Leggi tutto

15th book of 2023. Artist for this review is Russian painter Arkhip Kuindzhi (1841-1910). Sorokin is becoming one of those writers where I think to myself, Yeah, I'll read them all. There's something so wild and intelligent about this, just as there was in Day of the Oprichnik ; but this is considerab Leggi tutto