Day of the Oprichnik

Boiling over with bitter satire and vivid, disturbing imagery, Day of the Oprichnik by Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin is a damning attack on what he sees as contemporary Russia's return to a totalitarian government. Set in the year 2028 in the newly named "New Rus," the novel follows Andrei Komiaga as he and his fellow "oprichniks"—an organization of thugs who do the bidding of the Czar—go about their daily routines torturing and murdering "internal enemies" of the state while indulging their tastes for drugs, fine food, and group sex. Through the scrim of Andrei's hopped-up monologue, Sorokin exposes the discrepancies between Andrei's devout belief in the new government order—a blend of religion and despotism—and the heinous criminal acts he carries out in the name of that government. Along the way, Sorokin juxtaposes fantastic details from traditional Russian culture with bizarre Matthew Barney-like rituals in a relentless prose style that also manages to take in poetry, song lyrics, and propaganda film dialogue. Despite the familiarity of some of the dystopian tropes Sorokin employs, Day of the Oprichnik is fresh and compelling, and should help bring this bold writer's work to a wider audience.