Clenched
I took time off from the digital age this weekend—no email, internet, text, cellphone for a day. True, it was Sunday so there was less information traffic. Must try this again in the middle of a busy week. I started and finished Smiley’s People, which is so tense that your entire body feels like a clenched fist. Eminently satisfying. Can anyone recommend a post-Soviet Russian novel? The only ones I know of are Sergei Lukyanenko’s vampire thrillers Night Watch, etc. I scoured Fully Booked and found Andrey Kurkov’s Death and the Penguin—the first chapters are deadpan funny, plus I like penguins and could spend hours watching them.
By the way, Hancock is extremely enjoyable. It doesn’t dwell too much on the wino-superhero’s origins, which is just as well because the “explanation” for the waning of his powers doesn’t hold up. Also, he’s more fun as a drunken slob. Not that people are necessarily more interesting when they’re smashed or high. Substances only turn off inhibitions and trigger what’s already there. People who are boring to begin with can only be more boring when drunk or stoned; they just become more fascinating to themselves.
When the movie starts, a kid wakes Hancock, who’s passed out on a bench. “Hey!” my friend and I chorused. “That kid looks like Weng Weng!” I said. “That kid looks like Vladimir Putin!” my friend said at the exact same moment. So by the principle of transitivity, does Vladimir Putin look like Weng Weng? (For the conspiracy theorist: Is Vladimir Putin Weng Weng?)
July 7th, 2008 at 15:58
gorky park?
July 7th, 2008 at 16:39
whoops soviet era pa pala yun. erm how about wolves eat dogs?
July 7th, 2008 at 19:30
Not a Russian novelist, but maybe you can check out Martin Cruz Smith. His novel’s hero may not be as complex as old George, but it’s interesting to see the hero(so to speak) deal with the KGB (he’s a Moscow militia) in solving crimes in his city. The character also survived the Soviet Union’s dissolution; there are Smith novels post-Soviet featuring Arkady Renko (the hero).
I have a sneaking suspicion though that you’ve already read Martin Cruz Smith.
July 8th, 2008 at 09:28
I’m watching it for Jason Bateman. Arrested Development represent!
July 8th, 2008 at 14:13
dobby the house-elf on the potter films was modeled, i think, on vlad putin.
it seems though that dobby + vlad = wengweng
July 9th, 2008 at 08:52
ive yet to read on the russian-spy kgb genre.
hear that ex-pres vlad putin has a book coming out.
vern troyer (mini-me) can be weng weng. if he was baked in a tanning bed.