Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin
191 pages, Hardcover
Published March, 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
This is my second reading of a Sorokin novel after his work was put on my radar by my homey Nikita, who teaches Soviet science fiction. Day of the Oprichnik is a near-future (now, although far away when it was composed) dystopia that feels like a satire Putinś Russia. Which, of course, I absolutely respect. Sorokin as an author living in a repressive country, didn't seem afraid to push buttons. Did he predict the future? Did he nail Putin much like PKD did Trump in Radio Free Albemuth (I know he was writing about Nixon, but come on…)
Set in 2028 Russia, we follow one of the tsar's most trusted advisors, Andrei. The old Russian Tsarist ways have returned, but now we have weird new bubbles that float around delivering the news, mind-fucking drugs only available to the elite, and genetically modified animals. All these things are normal for Andrei, including being part of brutal government crackdowns.
My biggest problem with reading Sorokin is that I can sense his genius at work, but it is over my head. I can tell he is using prose and form common to Russian classics; how much of that can be translated into English, and even then, how much do I understand? Not as much as I think a proper reading of this novel needs.
Sorokin seems to be commenting on how the Russian tradition of strong arms and enforcement seems insane in the light and attention of the modern world. I don’t live there, so I can't comment on how it is aging. Is Sorokin as predictive as Brunner or PKD? Someone in Russia would have to say, and who knows if they would feel comfortable doing so.
I liked this better than Blue Lard, but again, I feel much of this is lost on me.
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