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Day of the Oprichnik A Novel edition by Vladimir Sorokin Jamey Gambrell Literature Fiction eBooks

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Day of the Oprichnik A Novel edition by Vladimir Sorokin Jamey Gambrell Literature Fiction eBooks

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.


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Day of the Oprichnik A Novel edition by Vladimir Sorokin Jamey Gambrell Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews

Sorokin is a great writer, and this is a bizarre book that will probably fascinate many. But the translation is so atrocious, so awkward, so inconsistent...can't muster more than 3 stars.
This dark dystopia by one of the most prominent Russian dissident writers has been prophetic and is being quoted more and more recently in relation to Putin's Russia. Sorokin was so exact in his predictions and understanding of the nature of the oprichnics, modern-day kleptomaniac KGB thugs who are in power in Russia it will give anyone who understands anything about Russian culture and politics goose bumps. Some of the gloomy descriptions are so graphic they will stay with you forever.
This is a stark depiction of a future Russia that is built around the worst of the practices of their past leaders. The hypocrisy is exceeded only by the brutality. This is also a disturbing book that would be funny in reading if it wasn't so serious in effect.

With books that have been translated into English, I never know if I am actually reading the "style" of the author or the translator. And, not knowing Russian, I have to assume the translator did a great job. Given the acclaim the book received in Russia and how well this read, I think Gambrell did a fine job.

While the events portrayed are, from a practical standpoint, highly unlikely; they are, from a philosophical standpoint, certainly plausible. Given the history of Russia in the 20th Century, the reader will not be very surprised at Sorokin's "world".

Based on this book, I have bought Sorokin's books "Queue" and "Ice Trilogy".

The Queue (New York Review Books Classics)
Ice Trilogy (New York Review Books Classics)
Bizarrely, imaginatively, and articulately written. Sorokhin captures the brutal and corrupt exceptionalism that is always adopted by a ruling class with absolute power, whether in the Stalinist USSR or current day Moscow or Washington. These regimes always look back to what they view as better days in the past and try to recreate them in the present, whether they be the days of Ivan the Terrible or the ante bellum US South. This was a difficult book to translate. My command of Russian is not sophisticated, so the translation seemed OK to me. My Russian sources tell me that Sorokhin’s use of and reference to antiquated language make it impossible to deliver the full flavor in English. It would help an Anglphone to have knowledge of or do some some reading in Russian history to appreciate this novel fully.
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.
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.