"The Tsar of Love and Techno" by Anthony Marra

The Tsar of Love and Techno is a compilation of intertwined short stories that begin in Stalin's pre-WWII Soviet Russia and end in outer space. I must admit that I enjoyed the first 2 or 3 stories much more than subsequent ones. Perhaps it is because they grew progressively more violent and surreal. By the end of the book, when I was on the last story but one, I could not help but draw parallels between Marra's work and Quentin Tarantino's movies.

Just like Tarantino's films, Marra assembles a cast of wholly unlikable characters - specimen of bottom dwellers: murderers, snitches, drug dealers and the like. I honestly could not relate to any of them. However, I could definitely sympathize and feel for their plight. Again, as in Tarantino's films, there is prevalence of violence, moral deprivation, and a sense of complete and utter hopelessness and despair.

His book cannot be read as historical fiction. Even though the stories are deeply rooted in Russia's turbulent history of Stalin's purges, gulags, the devastation of the post-Soviet period and the horrors of the war in Chechnya, they give impressions of what life for a single individuals might feel like in a given snippet of time. It is not a historically accurate account. It is more of an impressionist's snapshot of what reality could be like for someone at a given point in time. His characters and his portrayal of Russian life are not representative of what an average Soviet or Russian citizen experienced.

I also can't help but note the lopsidedness of his portrayal of the conflict in Chechnya: Russian soldiers are depicted as wholly rent-seeking, dishonest and violent, yet there is a telling absence of brutality on the part of rebels, who nonetheless hold two Russian soldiers as domestic slaves at one point in the narrative.

Overall, I enjoyed seeing the interconnectedness of the stories and tracing the lives of various characters as times and regimes changed. I think the book is masterfully written, definitely reminiscent of Cloud Atlas, and if you are a Tarantino fan, you will enjoy the unsavory cast of characters and the neo-noir atmosphere. I just got sick and tired of despair and depravity, and had to intersperse my reading with happier books in between the stories. I also did not really like the ending. Although the loneliness of an afterlife in a space capsule coupled with weird bodily (or spiritual) sensations is a fitting end for a heart-broken murderer.