Sergey Dyachenko (1945–2022)

What an absolutely brilliant concept. I found it somewhat slow to get through the start of the book, but it hooked me more and more as it went on - I finished parts 2 and 3 in two days. Props to the translator for doing such a brilliant job translating such specific concepts and such powerful lyric writing.

The atmosphere of this book is intense, and familiar in its own way as someone who’s finished a degree - the restless nights and stress were reminiscent of my own third year, turned up several notches by the particular pressures of the program.

Four and a half stars; I’ll keep it on my shelf and recommend it highly.… (more)

Rating 3.5 out of 5

This book left me with seriously mixed feelings. I’ll admit that I was thoroughly engrossed for the first half, but my interest slowly waned. What I initially found to be so promising, mysterious, and intriguing, degraded into one of my least favorite plot devices: keeping readers and characters unnecessarily uniformed. That being said, the writing was lovely. Sometimes the spark of language is lost in translation, and that didn’t happen here, I don’t speak Russian so I can’t say for certain, but the prose flowed in a delightfully unforced way.

As the story drags on it becomes clear that main plot device is ineffability. The inability for what is being taught to be explained to the characters/students (the irony), the students being unable to communicate amongst themselves about normal problems, and Sasha, our protagonist, having communication failures throughout. I can handle this theme in limited doses, but not every conversation needs to end in “I can’t tell you that, you have to experience it” or “you couldn’t possibly understand it.” (*Cough* the point of a novel is to put things into words, so if the main plot elements can’t be put into words, what’s the point? Maybe try painting? Making a film? Some other form of media that doesn’t consist primarily of words?) If this book was whittled down to about half its length, I would have enjoyed it more, the ineffability plot wouldn’t have worn so thin. By the end of the book, I realized that despite all the happenings, the plot was actually really simple, and could have been greatly condensed.

Maybe I just missed the point? Maybe all the irks I had with this book were supposed to be there? Despite my complaints, this wasn’t a ‘bad’ book, or really even poorly written, it just didn’t work. I’m giving it such a high rating because I don’t regret reading it, I just wish it had some modifications.… (more)