Rats and human beings aren’t always that far apart from each other. As the political intrigue of phantasmagorical postcommunist reality develops into nightmare, the greed, cunning, and malice of the humans more and more resemble the behavior of the large communities of destructive rodents, while the rats acquire more and more human features. Svetloyar is bidding to be included in the list of historical towns making up Russia’s famous "Golden Ring" a lucrative tourist route around Moscow. Aside from the problem that it has no history, having been entirely constructed during the Stalinist period, the place is overrun by rats and two pest-controllers are summoned from Moscow. What follows is an astute interrogation of the nature of both humanity and history, as the narrator’s desire for the regional dictator’s wife sits subtly alongside his perpetual concern for the destruction of rats. While clearly in the classical Russian tradition, the novel also incorporates the more experimental and satirical aesthetic of Soviet writers such as Bulgakov, and as the narrator’s perception of reality becomes increasingly warped, so does our experience of the almost comically grotesque landscape around him.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'Terekhov's language is packed with forceful imagery and the slang of modern Russian. If we wish to identify precedents for his work we might look to Saltykov-Schedrin from the 19th century for his satire of provincial life, and Platonov in the early Soviet period for his range of imagery and individuality of language. Terekhov, however, is a young and vital writer drawing very much on his own resources and experience, with a distinctive and individual intonation. In the Rat Killer he has produced a racy read which is at the same time an extended metaphor and a satirical novel very much in the Russian tradition'The Moscow TimesFunny, crazy and wonderfully unpredictable - The Times
About the Author
Alexander Terekhov's short stories have been translated into French, German, and English.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Not an easy read.,
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This review is from: The Rat Killer (Paperback)
I found this book to be really hard to get into and from the way the story is told, its just to hard to comprehend what is going on. I read half of the book before I gave up, but give it a chance if you're really into Russian culture or pest extermination.
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