{"product_id":"the-slynx-isbn-9781590171967","title":"The Slynx","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew in Paperback\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A postmodern literary masterpiece.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo hundred years after civilization ended in an event known as the Blast, Benedikt isn’t one to complain. He’s got a job—transcribing old books and presenting them as the words of the great new leader, Fyodor Kuzmich, Glorybe—and though he doesn’t enjoy the privileged status of a Murza, at least he’s not a serf or a half-human four-legged Degenerator harnessed to a troika. He has a house, too, with enough mice to cook up a tasty meal, and he’s happily free of mutations: no extra fingers, no gills, no cockscombs sprouting from his eyelids. And he’s managed—at least so far—to steer clear of the ever-vigilant Saniturions, who track down anyone who manifests the slightest sign of Freethinking, and the legendary screeching Slynx that waits in the wilderness beyond.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     Tatyana Tolstaya’s \u003ci\u003eThe Slynx\u003c\/i\u003e reimagines dystopian fantasy as a wild, horripilating amusement park ride. Poised between Nabokov’s \u003ci\u003ePale Fire\u003c\/i\u003e and Burgess’s \u003ci\u003eA Clockwork Orange\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Slynx\u003c\/i\u003e is a brilliantly inventive and shimmeringly ambiguous work of art: an account of a degraded world that is full of echoes of the sublime literature of Russia’s past; a grinning portrait of human inhumanity; a tribute to art in both its sovereignty and its helplessness; a vision of the past as the future in which the future is now.“The hero of this spellbinding futuristic novel, a government scribe\u003cbr\u003enamed Benedikt, lives in a primitive settlement on the site of Moscow,\u003cbr\u003etwo hundred years after \"the Blast.\" No one knows quite how the old\u003cbr\u003eworld was destroyed; as Benedikt puts it, \"People were playing around\u003cbr\u003eand played too hard with someone's arms.\" Citizens born after the Blast\u003cbr\u003eexist on a diet of mice and \"worrums\" and bear frightening mutations,\u003cbr\u003eor 'Consequences' -- a tail, a single eye, a head covered with fringed\u003cbr\u003ered coxcombs. Other inhabitants, called Oldeners, haven't aged at all\u003cbr\u003esince the Blast, and harbor memories of a lost culture that go unheeded\u003cbr\u003eby their descendants. Tolstaya's radioactive world is a cunning blend\u003cbr\u003eof Russia's feudal and Soviet eras, with abuse of serfs, mandatory\u003cbr\u003egovernment service, and regulation of literature. The dangers that\u003cbr\u003ethreaten, however, feel more contemporary: to the south, Chechens; and\u003cbr\u003eto the west a civilization that might hold some promise, except that\u003cbr\u003eits members \"don't know anything about us.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Though her short fiction combines a Chekhovian talent for character development with an Isaac Babeln like economy of prose, \u003ci\u003eThe Slynx\u003c\/i\u003e is a complex, deeply rewarding masterwork about a man preserving the charred remains of Russian high culture.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Washington City Paper\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The  post-nuclear world is not so different from what many readers might  imagine—a mutant race has emerged, mice are an important food group, and  books are banned. And to make life for the proletariat even harder, a  murderous creature called the slynx is preying on the city’s workers.  Benedikt seems to live an almost charmed life as one of the dictator’s  scribes, plagiarizing liberally to make Kablukov the creator of all  things wonderful and wise. Then he develops a taste for knowledge, and  realizes he must be the revolution.\" --\u003ci\u003eSchool Library Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Tolstaya  offsets layers of exquisitely constructed language with the colloquial  and the idiomatic and in a similar way layers the commonplace with the  supernatural. The creation of a brilliant jumble of motley metaphors is  her gift – not plot, trajectory, or the arc of a story, but the plunge  into the middle of dazzling verbiage, her bright universe.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Phoenix\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Though some may already consider contemporary Russia a kind of\u003cbr\u003edystopia, things could yet be worse, as posited in Tolstaya's\u003cbr\u003eintelligent debut novel (after two acclaimed story collections,\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSleepwalker in a Fog \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eOn the Golden Porch\u003c\/i\u003e). Some kind of nuclear\u003cbr\u003eaccident has turned all of Russia into a postapocalyptic wasteland,\u003cbr\u003ewhere snow falls constantly and mice are the staple of people's diets.\u003cbr\u003eMoscow has been ruled by a series of petty despots, each of whom\u003cbr\u003erenames the great city after himself. The latest ruler is Fyodor\u003cbr\u003eKuzmich, who employs vast numbers of scribes to copy his writings\u003cbr\u003e(actually plagiarized versions of great literary works). One of these\u003cbr\u003escribes is Benedikt, a simple man who has never actually read a book.\u003cbr\u003eBut Oldeners-people who survived the blast-keep secret libraries, and\u003cbr\u003ewhen one of them introduces Benedikt to his collection, it begins a\u003cbr\u003ecycle of learning that gives Benedikt serious political ambitions,\u003cbr\u003eenough to start yet another Russian revolution. It takes some time for\u003cbr\u003ea plot to develop, but Tolstaya sketches a vivid picture of life in\u003cbr\u003ethis permanent winter (\"Give black rabbit meat a good soaking, bring it\u003cbr\u003eto boil seven times, set it in the sun for a week or two, then steam it\u003cbr\u003ein the oven-and it won't kill you\"). If the author's name looks\u003cbr\u003efamiliar,  it's because it is: Tolstaya is Leo Tolstoy's great-grandniece, so  writing about Russian tyranny is something of a family tradition. In  this extended fable, she captures the Russian yearning for culture, even  in desperate circumstances. Gambrell ably translates the mix of  neologisms and plain speech with which Tolstaya describes this  devastated world. (Jan. 15) Forecast: Tolstaya is a\u003cbr\u003efrequent contributor to the \u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e and other journals, and this novel will likely benefit from its simultaneous publication with a collection of her essays (\u003ci\u003ePushkin's Children: Writings on Russia and Russians\u003c\/i\u003e; Mariner).” Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information. —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With the publication . . . of \u003cb\u003eTHE SLYNX,\u003c\/b\u003e [Tolstaya] will . . . be granted a place alongside her exalted countrymen Nabokov, Bulgakov, and Gogol . . .\" —\u003ci\u003eBookforum\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In a society turned primitive by nuclear holocaust, people hunt mice\u003cbr\u003eand tremble at the mention of a mysterious forest creature called the\u003cbr\u003eslynx; of course, they are utterly ignorant, as books are banned. This\u003cbr\u003escenario may sound familiar, but what's new is the setting. Tolstaya, a\u003cbr\u003enoteworthy essayist and short story writer descended from the mighty\u003cbr\u003eTolstoy, places her tale in a futuristic Russia and imbues it with a\u003cbr\u003eRussian's typically mournful optimism. At its heart is Benedikt, scribe\u003cbr\u003eto the tyrant who rules this sorry land. Timid Benedikt has yet to read\u003cbr\u003ea book, but in the course of the novel he discovers the libraries owned\u003cbr\u003eby the Oldeners, those who recall the world before the fateful blast.\u003cbr\u003eNot surprisingly, he finds that literature is both liberating and\u003cbr\u003edangerous. The story starts slowly but gathers strength; it is\u003cbr\u003eparticularly interesting to see a Russian interpretation of dystopia\u003cbr\u003eand to imagine parallels with Russian history. Not for your average\u003cbr\u003ereader of futuristic tales, this belongs instead in all literary\u003cbr\u003ecollections.” [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9\/15\/02.]-Barbara Hoffert,\u003cbr\u003eLibrary Journal Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information. —\u003cb\u003eLibrary\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJournal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A strikingly imagined first novel (after stories: \u003ci\u003eOn the Golden Porch\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003cbr\u003e1989; \u003ci\u003eSleepwalker in a Fog\u003c\/i\u003e, 1992) skillfully creates a frightening and\u003cbr\u003eperversely funny postnuclear world. The setting is what once was\u003cbr\u003eMoscow, two hundred years after \"the Blast\" that leveled the\u003cbr\u003emetropolis, leaving a frozen wasteland clogged with trash and populated\u003cbr\u003eby a mixture of \"normal\" human beings and grotesque mutants. Moscow is\u003cbr\u003enow called Fyodor-Kuzmichsk, in honor of its seldom-seen dictator\u003cbr\u003eKablukov, a paternalistic egotist who is reputed to have invented every\u003cbr\u003euseful object now known to man and to be the author of the classic\u003cbr\u003eliterary works he blithely plagiarizes. A ravenous mythical beast, the\u003cbr\u003eslynx, further impairs the wretched lives of oppressed workers\u003cbr\u003e(\"Golubchiks\"), prowling the ruined city's dark outskirts. And\u003cbr\u003eBenedikt, a Golubchik employed as one of the numerous scribes recording\u003cbr\u003ethe dictator's ostensible works, naively incarnates both his people's\u003cbr\u003epassive servitude, and-once he's introduced to forbidden books by\u003cbr\u003e\"Oldeners\"  who deny Fyodor Kuzmich's virtual divinity-their urge toward  enlightenment and freedom. Sustained by his love for his fiancée\u003cbr\u003eOlenka, and encouraged by his putative father-in-law Kudeyar\u003cbr\u003eKudeyarich, Benedikt aspires to further knowledge (\"He dreamt he knew\u003cbr\u003ehow to fly\"), loses his own mutant status (surrendering his vestigial\u003cbr\u003etail), and finds himself crucially involved in a \"revolution\" that ends\u003cbr\u003eFyodor Kuzmich's abuses of power even as it recycles them in different\u003cbr\u003eforms. The slynx is thus less mythic than symbolic: it's the beast in\u003cbr\u003eman. Tolstaya enriches this mordant farce with a wealth of weird\u003cbr\u003esupporting detail reminiscent of Anthony Burgess's futuristic classic\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Clockwork Orange\u003c\/i\u003e. An ending note informs us that \u003cb\u003eThe Slynx\u003c\/b\u003e was written between 1986 and 2000, and it's easy to see why. A densely woven,\u003cbr\u003ethought-provoking fantasy, and an impressive step forward for the\u003cbr\u003egifted Tolstaya.” —\u003cb\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Slynx\u003c\/i\u003e, with its comical, tragical, post-nuclear holocaust setting, is a satirical blast, a linguistically inventive glimpse of a future nobody wants to see.\u003cbr\u003e— Alan Cheuse, All Things Considered \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is impossible to communicate adequately the richness, the exuberance, and the horrid inventiveness of \u003ci\u003eThe Slynx\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e— John Banville, \u003ci\u003eThe New Republic\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[a] spellbinding futuristic novel....Tolstaya’s radioactive world is a cunning blend of Russia’s feudal and Soviet eras, with abuse of serfs, mandatory government service, and regulation of literature. The dangers that threaten, however, feel more contemporary: to the south, Chechens; and to the west a civilization that might hold some promise, except that its members “don’t know anything about us.”\u003cbr\u003e— \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Slynx\u003c\/i\u003e is a profound work. It is well served by Jamey Gambrell’s fine translation.\u003cbr\u003e— Books in Canada\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eBorn in Leningrad, \u003cb\u003eTatyana Tolstaya\u003c\/b\u003e comes from an old Russian family that includes  the writers Leo and Alexei Tolstoy. She studied at Leningrad State University and  then moved to Moscow, where she continues to live. She is also the author of \u003ci\u003ePushkin’s  Children: Writings on Russia and Russians\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJamey Gambrell\u003c\/b\u003e is a writer on Russian  art and culture. Her translations include  Marina Tsvetaeva's \u003ci\u003eEarthly Signs: Moscow  Diaries 1917—1922 \u003c\/i\u003eand Vladimir Sorokin's  \u003ci\u003eIce\u003c\/i\u003e, published by NYRB Classics on December  2006.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304162808037,"sku":"NP9781590171967","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590171967.jpg?v=1767741551","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-slynx-isbn-9781590171967","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}