Customer Reviews

Vodka

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I considered it a tremendous find to see this book peeking out at me in Duty Free at Heathrow Airport on my way home from Europe recently. I've been such a fan of Boris Starling since Messiah, and have been hoping, nay, praying, for another page turner. Sadly, Vodka is not it.

At just over 500 pages, Starling takes too long to tell the story, or stories, as there are multiple here and sometimes you wonder if it is indeed worth the effort of keeping up with them. While the background on the vodka industry and the mechanics of business and mafia in Russia were interesting enough, only the last 75 pages or so had the type of suspense we would hope for from Starling and the ending was a bit too pat for me. The "killings" were too few and far between for a book 500 pages long...I just never felt there was much of a threat there, although the story behind them was a bit of a surprise.

Easily, this could've been told quicker and more effortlessly by Starling. I won't give up on him though, I'm already waiting for his next.

Vodka is an average thriller set in a more interesting than average background - post-Communist Moscow, Russian mafia, KGB leftovers and all that. What lets it down most are implausible and unlikeable main characters.


Alice Liddell is an American who feels Russian in her heart, despite acting like a spoilt Western brat. She's a banker, financier, heavy drinker, smart & sexy & beautiful, a skilled investigator, an unfaithful wife to a boring respectable husband, a coy & pasionate mistress.

Lev is a 'vor', a member of an elite criminal brotherhood, the leader of a Slav criminal gang, and a Parliamentary Deputy, and a Gulag survivor, and the head of the largest state-run Vodka distillery, big, imposing, muscular, with a hard washboard stomach...you get the drift. It's nothing like this author's very good first book Messiah, which among other things had distinctive yet convincing characters.


Things get worse when this pair of course fall in love, as they always do in this kind of book. This tiresome situation is described in near Mills & Boon style - glances across the room, blushes, fingers brushing, heated abandon. In between all this there's murder, gang wars, revenge, and plenty of vodka consumed to get through the story. The plot even picks up near the end, but by then I disliked Alice so much it was a lost cause.

There are worse books than Vodka, but if you like post-Soviet thrillers there are many better - re-read any of the Martin Cruz Smith 'Arkady Renko' or Donald James 'Vadim' books. If Soviet-era
police procedurals might be your thing, read the excellent and original (but hard to find) Stuart Kaminsky 'Porfiry Rostnikov' books.

Vodka is a sprawling, impossible novel. Starling accomplished a few things, notably a somewhat lurid portrayal of post-Soviet Moscow in the throes of privatization and a wave of mafia violence. As far as the characters go, I found them somewhat ponderous and slightly unbelievable. It's easy to like Lev, until one realizes he's just as ruthless of a gangster than any others. It's easy to be intrigued by Alice, until we find she is more of an alcoholic than anything else.
The plot has so many twists and turns that it lost me somewhere along the way. As someone who'd been to Moscow in mid-90s, I did find that the atmosphere and the political commentary rang true, for most part. I could have done with less graphic violence, fewer shoot-outs and fewer torture scenes, but that's just my taste in literature.
The storyline of an honest cop tracking a serial killer/deranged Afghan war veteran, well, it's a good try but it really takes the attention off what is already a busy main thread of the book. It all conveniently comes together in a weird and sad ending. All too conveninetly, in my opinion.
All in all, Starling took on a huge and complicated array of subjects and constructed almost too many complex characters - perhaps two shorter books or an immense, 800 page novel, would have done this tale a justice.

In 1991 Moscow, Russia struggles with the transition from Communism to Democracy as economic reform means increasingly difficult hardships in the short run and an increase in influence by the already powerful Mafia. Children are murdered and kidnappings are a way of life while food shortages have become dangerously normal. Chaos is the order in Russia.

International Monetary Fund advisor Alice Liddell is in Moscow to privatize the Red October Distillery, makers of vodka. Alice naively thought a lack of time and selling the concept of privatization were the problems she would face. However, Alice soon learns that vodka flows in every Russian's blood and control of its production symbolic, which means the Russian mafia, is involved. Alice is tugged in two directions both involving the Red October Director and parliamentary deputy Lev, who some insist is the biggest crook in Moscow. As Alice fights her attraction to her boardroom opponent, she finds Red October corrupt and run by the Mafia. Lev also battles with his attraction to the visiting American while he wars with his Chechen archenemy.

This exciting thriller provides an insightful look at Russia during the aftermath of the fall of Communism. Alice is a terrific character who wonders how ruthless and crooked Lev is though she desires him. Lev is an intriguing protagonist, perhaps antagonist, who puts a human face to the power struggle. Though the stormy Chechen subplot is very exciting and adds insight to the overall tale, it seems as if it belongs in its own novel as so much is going on in Moscow. Distilled, the star character remains vodka that links all Russians.

Harriet Klausner

Wow, talk about bad. Every page was like pulling teeth. And the absolutely absurd descriptions of various vodkas. Does this author know what he's talking about? I think not. I've working in Russia for over 10 years, including in the alcohol (aka vodka) industry. This book isn't even remotely close to describing what Russia was really like in the first post Soviet months/years. It's just a long dragging nightmare about an alcoholic American, her seemingly Yetti sized Russian mafia boyfriend, her sad American husband, and the most ridiculous killer/cop relationship that could have ever been created. I'm convinced that every time he described or even mentioned vodka, Mr. Starling must have been having a snort himself. Don't waste your time or your money, there are much better books on similar topcs out there.

Vodka is important in Russia. Very important. As a character puts it in one beautiful soliloquy: "It is our lifeblood; the defining symbol of Russian identity. It is our main entertainment, our main currency, our main scourge. Vodka effects every aspect of Russian life...it is the great equaliser. If there's one things which unites the President with the frozen drunk found dead on a street, it is Vodka... What's Vodka if not all things to all men? Every aspect of the human condition finds its reflection in Vodka, and its exaggeration, too. Russians drink from grief and from joy, to be warmed in the cold, and cooled in the heat, because we are tired and to get tired."

So, as with the Spice on Herbert's Dune, he who controls vodka controls Russia. This is why, in the immediate days after the fall of communism has left the economy in ruins, the rouble worthless and vodka as the only currency (people are healed with it; people are tortured with it; people's salaries are paid in it; peopled are bribed with it) the largest distillery in the country, Red October, is selected as the vehicle to lead the push for privatisation. The quick success of the venture, the selling of such a national symbol, is hoped to convince the Russian people that western capitalism is the only way forward. To organise the privatisation, American banker Alice Liddell is brought in. However, despite her experience the task will not be easy. The Russian people - who "enchant with their arts and inspire with their courage, but have horror, tragedy and drunkenness spiralling through their genes" - are sceptical and thus resistant, and rival mafiya gangs are busy vying for control of the city, leeching off the power vacuum. Lev, the charismatic leader of one of the gangs, currently owns Red October, and Alice - whose life, like that of Russia, I notice is also torn between new and old, comfort and danger, sanity and madness - must first get past him. The great bear, after the fall of the old regime, is stumbling blind, dangerously, into its future, and chaos and uncertainty are the only norms. So, little attention is paid when the body of a child is pulled from the icy Moscow River. And a second. And then a third.

The plot of Vodka is very hard to pin down, because it is a multi-stranded, multi-plotted Janus of a book. In a way, the plot itself is Russia; it exemplifies Russia in all ways. Starling's examination of a country lost in its own wilderness is absolutely astounding. I have never been so struck by wonderful lines such as, "like vodka, the onion is another perfect symbol of Russia. Onions have many layers; and the more you peel away, the more you weep."

Alice, an outsider who finds herself adrift in a huge confusing land, is a perfect internal reflection of the country itself, and the book is crammed full of other instances of symbolism and metaphor far too clever to be written about in this small space. Set during 100 days in the winter of 1991 (and with one chapter per day, that makes it a meaty tome), it is a tumbleweed of violence, emotion, politics and transition blowing down an icy, deserted street. It is big and complex, panoramic and epic.

The narrative structure too is incredible: it expands and contracts like a Chinese finger-trap as the focus is placed on the political big picture, the distillery and the politick, and then successively switched onto the developing relationship between Alice and Lev (which is less convincing in actuality than it is as a progressive metaphor), and the bleak investigation by a determined Estonian policeman into the child murders. The structure breathes and propels you along with the waves of pace created by the shifts of that focus. A big book it may be, but overlong it is definitely not, and fascinating it is to the final word.

Starling's vision is powerful and all-encompassing, and there are more than enough profound and striking ruminations on the nature of Russia (and vodka!) to fill a small notebook. One of my favourites is, "There is no such thing as Russian cuisine, only things that go well with vodka."

The portrait of the country he clearly adores is a remarkable achievement. It is a country where the only system of law that works is the rule of the mafiya. The politicians are corrupt, and the gang-leaders are the only people of any honour - and it is an honour they stick to with pride. Lev, portrayed as he is almost to be the "hero" of the piece, is incensed when a rival Chechen gang breaks the code and involves innocent members of the public, and his retribution is swift and deadly. It is a world turned on its head, and it is entirely convincing. In all honesty, I am awed by Starling's immense achievement. I ache for more.

The ending, too, is perfect. As the novel ends, with the same lines as it began, as Starling seals tight this vast echo-chamber of a novel and sends resonances eddying through the body of it, the serpent eats its own tail; the monster consumes itself and the book, and Russia, seems to come full circle. As it is put by one Moscow official, "every Russian crime is cannibalistic to some extent; no people feed on and off each other more than the Russians."

Great book if you would like to learn about the breakup of Communism in the Soviet Union in the early 90's. Very detailed descriptions capture the moods and instablity of Moscow during their great transition.

If you didn't notice in the other reviews, yes, you do learn a lot about vodka. It was interesting but sometimes it got to be too much, which I will mention later when I talk about Alice....

A US banker is sent to Russia to take a look at a Vodka distillery and break it in to the new attempt at democracy. Alice becomes way too involved in the this futile project as the days go by. (Each chapter is a new day). Of course she's with some deadbeat that no longer loves her and she's been looking to fall in love with the a guy while in Russia soon after the first night out. Basically she's a desperate woman on the verge of giddiness looking to find her fountain of youth in the USSR. The first guy she meets happens to be Lev, the owner of the vodka distillery by day and the local Red Mafiya kingpin by night. Of course Lev has been to hell and back a few times and Alice just eats it up. Lev introduces her to the presence of vodka abuse in russia and Alice proceeds to drink herself under the table every night starting around page 150. (I'm not drunk, you can't tell me what to do!! routine.) Alice gets captured by Chechens at around page 500 and tossed around a little bit, but when Lev pulls some major strings to get her out, she puts on an attention getting act by saying 'I would have rather died than you saved me!" (Sorry but you have to read the book to find out why she says this. It took the author about 600 pages to get this point across so it's impossible to do it in a few sentences.) In the end we are reminded that Lev is not a snuggle bear for Alice but a die hard Mafiosi and he lives the life up until... well, the end. Alice goes and surrenders her US citizenship which I'm sure most Russians would love to have and becomes a Russian herself. (Who does it sound like got the last laugh?)

Keep in mind that all of this has happened in 3 months. Wow, is love blind or what?

Really though, I found this book to be interesting in the thoroughness of it. I feel as if I went to a one day crash course about Vodka and the influence of organized crime on russian businesses. Worth the read if you'd like to learn a thing or two, but this isn't much of a thriller. If you find yourself swept away by the love story and drama, you too may find yourself sucking down the 100milligram swigs of Vodka just like Alice.

I hoped for the best when I bought this, but was very disappointed. The heroine, a Type A successful American brat, never won my empathy until the last 10 pages (of a book over 600), and then it was too late. The plot dragged on and on and on. The information about vodka held this thing together...don't waste your money.

Readers looking for a past-faced, page-turner sort of thriller may be disappointed with the long length and slow, thoughtful sections. However, any reader interested in the mysterious machinations of Russian political and criminal society will find this fictional tale to reveal more truth about the reality of Russian life than any history book. The dynamic between Starling's American and Russian characters bitingly reveals Western biases- and deftly pulls the carpet out from under readers who will find their own assumptions about life suddenly challenged. It is not an uplifting story, but it is refreshing in that it describes Russia as it is, not as the West would wish it to be. This book is highly recommended for anyone wishing to both learn about the real Russia and enjoy a wild ride of twists and turns down back alleys with spies, deceit, romance, global business deals, the KGB, and of course, Russian society itself.

Boris Starling's sprawling narrative is set in Moscow over a period of only four and one half months, yet the novel is epic in nature. From December 23, 1991, to May 9, 1992, the reader is taken on a wild roller coaster ride through a landscape reeling in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the inception of privatization. I should put "privatization" in quotations because no one could have envisioned exactly how chaotic the conversion of industries and businesses from governmental ownership to private enterprise would be.

This is the anarchic period of Boris Yeltsin's takeover of power from Mikhail Gorbachev, and, if you don't mind a plot, and an extraordinary number of subplots, which go off on a multitude of tangents, then you just might be caught up in "Vodka," as I certainly was. What a ride (!) - frequently wild and improbable...but so much fun!! If you prefer your prose tight and your storyline well organized, needless to say, this is not the book for you!

By December 1991, all of the former republics had declared independence. In the world of nonfiction, Vladimir Putin, Russia's current president, called the collapse of the Soviet Union "the largest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century." It resulted in economic crisis in Russia which continued for at least five years. Into this pandemonium steps the beauteous and brilliant Alice Liddell, an International Monetary Fund advisor responsible for overseeing the privatization of Red October, Russia's foremost vodka distillery.

The annual consumption of vodka in Russia, which has a population of approximately 146 million, is 4 billion liters a year. "The Russian Health Ministry estimated consumption in 1996 was 18 liters of pure alcohol per adult which is equivalent of 38 liters of 100 proof vodka. However, as the reader will discover, vodka is much more than the national drink. And as Ms. Liddell will discover, despite her entire history of professional banking and trading accomplishments, her ability to bring logic and order to her work environment just won't hack it in Moscow. And when she and her team meet Lev, "parliamentary deputy, distillery director, criminal godfather, champion weight lifter, his shoulders as wide as two men's, the crown of his head seven feet above the floor," and her new adversary, all bets for successfully transforming Red October into a private corporation, as defined outside of Russia, and introducing capitalism, American-style, are off.

The multiple subplots - well...there's a doozy of a serial killer on the loose in the big city and his/her victims are children; brutal Mafia wars between Chechen and Slavic crime syndicates bring a level of creative violence to this tale which makes our own Godfather's activities seem like shenanigans; ghosts of the Soviet-Afghani War haunt the novel's pages; an outrageously sentimental romance flourishes (and it works - although Anna Karenina it's not); alcoholism is painfully confronted by a main character; the making of vodka and the infinite variations of the final product are outlined and make for fascinating reading, etc., etc..

Some of the characters are really wonderful, in an entertaining sense. Lev is Robin Hood played by a Russian bear. And Juku Irk, the alienated Estonian investigator, is unusually sympathetic and original.

This is terrific, if simplistic and rambling historical fiction which manages to portray Russian Mafia interaction with government and the Party apparatus and make it appear logical, at times. It is also a helluva tale. I enjoyed!
JANA