It is no coincidence that Sorokinās books today are considered outstanding works of Russian literature. This is a well-known domestic writer who amazes critics with his findings, and the public is shocked by provocative plot twists. In this article we will talk about some of the most striking and notable works of the author.
Writer Biography
The first books of Sorokin were written back in the days of the Soviet Union, but were published much later, since the pre-perestroika society was not ready for such revelations, and most of the works of the hero of our article simply could not pass the censorship that existed then.
The writer himself was born in the small village of Bykovo near Moscow in 1955. His parents often moved, so he changed several schools.
Vladimir Georgievich Sorokin received his higher education at the Metropolitan Institute of the Oil and Gas Industry, specializing in mechanical engineering, but did not go to work by profession. Instead, he wrote to Smena for a year, whence he was fired for refusing to join the Komsomol.
After that, he began to engage in graphics, conceptual art and painting. In total, he illustrated about fifty books. As a writer, he was formed among representatives of the metropolitan underground of the 50s.
First publications
The first works of Sorokin, which saw the light of the day, were several stories that appeared in 1985 in the French magazine "A - Z". A little later in the Paris publishing house "Syntax" appeared his novel "Queue". It was the first published book of Sorokin.
Considered a representative of postmodernism, in his works he uses all kinds of literary techniques and styles. In Soviet times, it was close to Soviet conceptualists, its individual stories were published in Mitin Magazine in samizdat.
The first official publication dates back to 1989. These were several of Sorokinās short stories published in the Rodnik magazine in Riga.
In Russia, the public learned about it after the 1992 release of the Queue novel. His works began to fall into the short lists of prestigious literary awards.
Public response
It is worth noting that many of Sorokin's books often provoked a very sharp reaction from the public. For example, the pro-Kremlin movement "Going Together" organized a series of actions that were directed against the writer, even his books were burned. He was sued, demanding that certain works be recognized as pornographic. But the servants of Themis did not find anything illegal in his books.
His books are currently translated into 27 languages. In recent years, he returned to painting, creating two cycles: "Three Friends" and "New Anthropology." Now lives in Berlin, often in his native suburbs. He has a wife and two twin daughters.
The novel "Queue"
"Queue" became Sorokin's first book, after which popularity came to him. In this novel, as in earlier stories, one can see bold experiments on Russian prose, as a result of which traditional plots and genres undergo significant transformation.
The novel consists entirely of direct speech. The line in this case is a metaphor for our entire human life. Critics believe that this book teaches us to make other efforts to achieve the goal than those that we put in ordinary life. In fact, the novel itself is an endless conversation of strangers who accidentally ended up in the same queue. Each of their replicas is a striking touch to the portrait of an entire era, while often hanging in the air. It should be noted that the text contains foul language.
Plays
The hero of our article became famous not only as a prose writer, but also as a playwright. Sorokinās plays are staged in domestic theaters today, although this often ends in frank scandals.
His very first dramatic work was written in 1985, it was called "Dugout". It was followed by "Russian Grandmother", "Trust", "Dysmorphomania", "Shchi", "Dumplings", "Happy New Year", "Capital", "Skid". The latter was written in 2009, dedicated to the memory of Moscow conceptualist Dmitry Prigov, who died two years earlier.
"Norm"
According to readers, many were impressed by his debut novel, written back in 1979 and distributed in samizdat.
Sorokinās āNormsā takes place during the time of the purges arranged by Andropov. At the very beginning, KGB officers searched the apartment of dissident Boris Gurev. It is believed that under him the author deduced himself. Several forbidden manuscripts were seized from him, among them a text entitled "Norma". Sorokin describes how in the Lubyanka the manuscript is passed up the authorities until it is in the hands of a 13-year-old student.
The first part is composed of 31 sketches about the life of ordinary Soviet workers. The second part of the novel tells about the life of one Soviet person - from birth to death. The third begins with a story about the son of the landowner Anton, who returns to his native village, which has come to complete desolation.
The entire fourth part consists of 12 poems, each of which is dedicated to a specific month of the year. The fifth is framed in the epistolary genre, the sixth consists of only 28 lines in capital letters. The seventh is the speech of the prosecutor, who sets out at the trial the fate of a certain art critic arrested in 1949. In the eighth part, a production meeting is edited by one journal, while the speech of employees who discuss serious materials is constantly falling into chaos.
In the epilogue, the boy who read the novel shows a "4" rating to a KGB officer and leaves.
About the essence of the regime
The novel by Vladimir Sorokin, "The Thirtieth Love of Marina," the author wrote in the period from 1982 to 1984. It demonstrates in a metaphorical style the changes that are taking place with representatives of the bohemian who do not accept the existing totalitarian regime, but do not take any action, trying to fix something. The heroine of the novel, fixed on spiritual symbolism and a pseudo-patriotic spirit, becomes the text of Soviet editorials, and literally. Thus, Sorokin makes it clear that it is turning into the very essence of the regime.
The action of this work takes place in 1983. At the center of the story is 30-year-old Marina Alekseeva, who teaches children music at the House of Culture of one of the capital's factories. In her youth, she dreamed of a pianist career, but her own destiny did not work out due to a broken little finger.
Throughout the novel, the author pays special attention to the sexual past of the heroine, there are many frank scenes in the text.
The manifesto of postmodernism
One of the most famous and discussed books by Vladimir Sorokin, "Blue Fat" was written in 1999.
The plot of this work is built around a substance with a unique structure, which is called "blue fat". It is allegedly produced by clones of domestic classics. The action takes place in two temporary layers - in the alternative year 1954, when Stalin sits in Moscow, and Hitler in the Reich. And also in the second half of the XXI century in the Russian capital of the future and Siberia.
It was because of this work that Sorokin was accused of distributing pornography three years later with the filing of the pro-Kremlin Movement Together. The prosecutorās office even opened a criminal case. As a result of the examination, it was concluded that all the controversial scenes are caused by the logic of the narrative and have an artistic character.
50 chapter novel
"Telluria" Sorokina saw the light in 2013. This is a novel, divided into 50 chapters without a title, which are only numbered in Roman numerals. Characters of the work rarely intersect with each other. The action takes place in Russia and Europe in the middle of the XXI century.
For example, in one of the episodes, homosexuals travel to the USSR, and the state itself stands for the Stalinist Soviet Socialist Republic.
The work was considered one of the favorites of the "Big Book" award, but in the end lost to the "Abode" by Zakhar Prilepin.
Sorokinās latest novel at the moment is called "Manaraga", released in 2017. It is created in the style of a futuristic diary. Moreover, the day and month of the very first record coincides with the day when the book appeared on sale.
Events, as in the previous work, unfold in the middle of the XXI century. It is interesting that some posthistorical realities and geographical concepts correspond to the world created in the novel Telluria, and to the fact that the author of the diary is a cook who cooks his dishes on the books of the best Russian authors.
According to critics, in this work Sorokin ridiculed mass and elitist culture.