6.02.2011
Day of the Oprichnik
by Vladimir Sorokin, 191 pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: C
I suppose I'm just not "literary" enough to enjoy this novel. Set in a future Russia, the story tells a day in the life of one oprichnik. From what I can tell, the oprichnina (the collective of oprichnik) are Tsar-ist government officials that spend their day ousting nobles, burning houses, raping women, doing drugs, acting as censors, carrying out assassinations, bribery, controlling various dissidents, being busy-bodies, and having orgies.
--Having wikied oprichnik, that's pretty much what they did historically in the 16th century. Well, they were supposed to live more austerely like monks, but fulfilled the same government role.
Labels: genre: fiction, genre: foreign language, genre: scifi, media: book