Day of the Oprichnik
| Author | Vladimir Sorokin |
|---|---|
| Original title |
День опричника Den' oprichnika |
| Translator | Jamey Gambrell |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
| Publisher | Zakharov Books |
Publication date | 2006 |
Published in English | 2010 |
| Pages | 224 |
| ISBN | 5-8159-0625-5 |
Day of the Oprichnik (Russian: День опричника, Den' oprichnika) is a 2006 novel by the Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin. The narrative is set in the near future, when the Russian Empire has been restored, and follows a government henchman, an oprichnik, through a day of grotesque events. Sorokin in one of the later interviews[1] confessed that he did not anticipate his novel to come to life so true in many ways, even some subtle details, but rather wrote this book as a warning and "mystical precaution" against the state of events described in the storyline.
Reception
From the New York Times Book Review: "Sorokin’s pyrotechnics are often craftily twinned with Soviet-era references and conventions. The title and 24-hour frame of Day of the Oprichnik shout to mind Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962), an exposé of a Gulag camp that depicts an Everyman-victim who finds dignity in labor, almost like a Socialist Realist hero. But whereas Solzhenitsyn’s masterpiece unintentionally demonstrated the deep impact that Soviet tropes had had on its author, Sorokin’s comic turn deliberately shows how Soviet and even Old Muscovy mentalities persist."[2]