Finnish-Estonian production of Ice based of Vladimir Sorokin's novel performed at the Von Krahl Theatre in Helsinki
Riveting. Absolutely riveting.
And this riveting, spellbinding novel comes in two different flavors. You get to choose which one might suit your taste.
Flavor number one is to read Bro before Ice. Flavor number two is reading Ice without having read Bro. Permit me to elaborate.
Bro is Volume #1 of Vladimir Sorokin’s Ice Trilogy. Bro
is the first person account of how a young Russian by the name of
Alexander Snegirey has his heart awakened by Primordial Light in 1928.
As part of his awakening he is given the name of Bro and told he must
find his Brothers and Sisters who have also been chosen to likewise have
their hearts awakened. The novel takes readers on Bro’s breathtaking
adventure up until 1950. Ice continues the thread of the story beginning in the year 2000. Thus Bro provides not only historic context for Ice but puts the reader in the know about those who come to have their hearts awakened.
I'm glad I read Bro prior to reading Ice
since I generally like to follow a story chronologically. Added to
this, I would make the world's worst detective - much better for me to
know the basic facts of what's going on rather than being kept in the
dark.
British critic Michael Froggatt disagrees. In his review for Strange Horizons, Mr. Froggatt judges Ice the strongest novel in the trilogy and goes on to say how reading Bro lessens the mystery and suspense of Ice. He concludes by suggesting a reader who is interested in tackling Vladimir Sorokin's Ice Trilogy begin with Ice and work outwards.
Either way, Ice
possesses an intensity, a surging drive right from the first pages. The
narrative voice is detached, hard-edge, objective, as if a journalist
recording the nitty-gritty of combat in a war zone. We encounter drug
dealers, drug addicts, prostitutes, bottom of the barrel ruck and their
coarse, crude, brutal, blunt way of speaking and dealing with one
another – a novel not for the squeamish.
Many of the men and
women are given a special call-out. Two examples: 1) “Ilona: 17 years old,
tall, thin, with a lively laughing face, leather pants, platform shoes, a
white top.” - 2) “Borenboim: 44 years old, medium height, thinning blonde
hair, an intelligent face, blue eyes, thin glasses in gold frames, a
dark green three-piece suit."
There’s mystery afoot, a stroke of
Vladimir Sorokin infusion of radical myth mixed in with cosmic science
fiction: these denizens of Moscow’s concrete canyons wonder what the
hell is going on with the ice and all those primitive looking ice
hammers. And the shift in their feelings. The contrast between the
scummy day-to- day lives of these people and what they eventually feel
in their hearts is quite striking: hard-as-nails drug kingpin Borenboim
talking about his tender heart; likewise Nikolaeva the prostitute - very
funny in an odd, offbeat way.
Two glimmers of refinement in
this dank, cesspool world: Boremboim has a collection of Borges stories
in his briefcase and Mozart is playing softly at a rehabilitation
center. In Moscow 2000 overflowing with hard rock and liquor, gadgets,
computer games and Hollywood posters, to know at least somebody
appreciates Borges and Mozart is most refreshing.
Part Two
switches to an old lady’s first person account retracing her childhood
in a poor Russian village under Nazi occupation and her joining others
villagers herded off to Germany to work in a factory. But then something
remarkable happens. She’s singled out since she has blonde hair and
blue eyes. What follows thereafter ties her to a strange brotherhood.
Her worldview is forever transformed – from 1950 right up until 2000,
the grueling, gritty details of her earthbound, everyday routine take a
distant second to her true identity and mission.
One of the most stimulatiing dimensions of Ice
is the way in which the story raises a number of philosophical issues.
How bound are member of a particular religious cult or sect by their
beliefs? Jim Jones and the mass suicides/mass murders in Jonestown,
David Koresh and the Branch Davidians going up in flames in their
compound in Waco, Marshall Applewhite leading Heaven’s Gate members in
mass suicide - we need only think of these events to know that sects and
cults can be closely linked to violence and death.
And
considering the frequent instances of torture, imprisonment and murder
throughout history perpetuated in the name of religion, how far are the
major religions removed from sects and cults? Any time members view
others through the lens of “us versus them” watch out as brutality and
viciousness of one stripe or the other are not far behind.
What are we to make of the fellowship in Ice?
Those initiates speak of opening the heart but how open is their heart
to those outside their fellowship? Referring to “ordinary” humans as
meat machines unworthy of life has a frightening ring. And this
reference to libraries: "Thousands of meat machines were always sitting
there, engaged in silent madness: they attentively leafed through sheets
of paper covered with letters." Sounds like a rant spouted by a
semi-illiterate thug.
Witnessing the horrors of twentieth
century totalitarian governments is hardly less disturbing. And how
about the omnipresence of contemporary multinational corporations?
Perhaps Vladimir Sorokin in his sly way is commenting on the dangers of
all forms of power and coercion reducing individuals to hungry consumers
or meat machines.
Even if Ice is the only novel within
the trilogy one reads, it is well worth it. For fans of the author, both
old and new, nothing short of all three volumes will do.
Russian author Vladimir Sorokin
"Then
I saw OUR PEOPLE again. Their hearts shone. And they swarm around me.
There were more and more of them. I reached out to more and more new
ones, to ones that were far, far away. And finally, I saw the hearts of
ALL OUR PEOPLE on this gloomy planet." - Vladimir Sorokin, Ice
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