Day of the Oprichnik: A Novel

What are we reading?: Day of the Oprichnik, by Vladimir Sorokin (translated by Jamey Gambrell). Give me the short version: Ritual, torture, lust. Politics of deadly bent. Starting hungover, alternate future oprichnik Danilovich jams more into his day than most could take in a week. There’s a lot going on in this novel, for its relatively modest length. Lovers of history, sociology and politics will all find fascinations to plunge into, but don’t baulk if none of that fires your blood. I just picked it up ‘cause I like Russia. Day of the Oprichnik is wide open and enjoyable to anyone curious, from any background … although possibly not for faint hearts, unbending sensibilities or queasy stomachs. More suited to adventurous minds, keen to wander off the beaten track and question everything they know, let alone read. If you like doubling-up it’d make a great companion piece to Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. Invariably this is a world you’re left wanting to know more about, but Day of the Oprichnik is a perfectly balanced piece and really didn’t need to be a sentence longer. If like me you cracked the pages unfamiliar with the ins and outs of Russian history, do take the time to read up on the brutal real-life historical oprichnina My favourite bit: His Majesty’s father, the late Nikolai Platonovich, had a good idea: liquidate all the foreign supermarkets and replace them with Russian kiosks. And put two types of each thing in every kiosk, so the people have a choice. A wise decision, profound. Because our God-bearing people should choose from two things, not from three or thirty-nine. Choosing one of two creates spiritual calm, people are imbued with certainty in the future, superfluous fuss and bother is avoided, and consequently – everyone is satisfied.

This book is an exercise in dark humor. It's set in the future, when the Czarist monarchy has been restored in Russia and the country is as much of a autocratic, paranoid kleptocracy as is was under the real czars - and their successors. It's a parody with humor that non-Russian readers may miss unless they've read a few Russian novels and have some familiarity with Russian history. Even then I'm sure I missed at least half the snide references to present day Russia. It opens and closes with an hilarious parody of the closing lines of Gogol's novel Tarus Bulba. The author lets his imagine run pretty wild and mostly it's fun to read, although it does seem very foreign indeed.

Having recently finished reading Russian originals of both The Blizzard and Day of the Oprichnik, I decided to go through respective English translations out of sheer curiosity. I must say that as long as the translation of the Day of the Oprichnik is concerned I am not extremely satisfied with the result of Jamey Gambrell's work. Granted, the Russian original presents numerous challenges, but hitting home with some of the terms (mobilov, Mercedov - really inventive matches to what author uses in the original), she sometimes misses on more common phraseologisms. And what really got me to snap out of my general serene laziness and write this review is a following blunder: “What will happen to Russia?” She doesn’t answer, but looks at me carefully. I wait with trepidation . “It’ll be all right.” I bow, touching the stone floor with my right hand. And I leave. A literally translation from the original goes something like "With Russia, there will be nothing." Although indeed, Russian "nothing" can be translated as "all right", in this particular context it has a more direct meaning too, and Sorokin's phrase carries the connotation of a gloomy Zen saying, a word play which is lost in translation. But maybe I am indeed a bit too peeky. I must say that even since I started reading English translations of Russian authors, trying to find a fitting translation of Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich which I could recommend to an American friend, I have not so far found a work that would fully satisfy me. At the same time, truth be told, I think that Jamey Gambrell did a much better work with Sorokon's The Blizzard. A good translation, a solid read in it's own right.

This book is fascinating because it's fictional, but so grounded out of recent events in Russian history that it seems closer to a documentary. The technological and social developments are perfectly integrated into the story, so we don't think that this is science fiction, just a glimpse into a future that is very familiar and that we can relate to from what we know of the present. The narrative is very entertaining and the characters are engaging. The monarchy has been restored in this future time, but was it ever any other form of government in Russia regardless of the labels that modern times invented? There is a sincerity in addressing that culture that comes through very strongly and which is strikingly refreshing. I was shocked the book was not censored in some racy sections in our puritan-revival period that we are presently still undergoing at all levels of cultural life in America, these are precious morsels of the story and which make perfect sense within the context, aside from making the reading very exciting. The book is delightfully full of irony and humor about the Russian condition which has not strayed far from its roots at the time of Ivan the Terrible, a reference that is as constant in the story, as I suspect in real life there. Strongly recommended.

eNVIO RAPIDISSIMO!

I now understand the depths of manic psychosis gripping the current Russian leader.

A good though somewhat discomforting read for all those who try to understand what makes Russia tick, more relevant today than ever. In the run-up to the war in Ukraine, the West did not realize what was really going on in Russia; this book provides some insight. Scary to think that it was written already 15 years ago.

Arrived quickly and in good condition. Next on my reading list 😺

A rather shocking book in translation, written in the first person throughout, - and by a Leading Enforcement Operative with a persona of the most intense sensualism. Being so intensely moved by the sight, feel, taste and sound of all things external, is probably in reality only experienced by young children. This is a totally masculine universe, where vicious violent power is all and everything, - where religious belief in the (latest version of) the Tzar is required, - and where the highest artificial ecstasy has progressed to receiving microscopic goldfish intra-venously. The reality of an all-programmed artificial intelligence has been anticipated by this book’s “Invisible” species, who will answer any question. In other dimensions too, this book is anticipatory Science Fiction. There is no real ending to the book, - it just peters out, - and one is left with the feeling that if the conquer-ment of the outer world to Russia ever in fact took place, these characters could never tolerate any sort of quiet peace. They only live to hurt.