Russia; Novel - 2017 by Olga Slavnikova

“Winner of the Russian Booker prize, a sensational novel of Russia set exactly 100 years after the revolution.”

Well that's what the book jacket says anyway. 400 pages of pointlessness is how I would describe it. 2017 is a dystopian tale of a Russian everyman Krylov who finds purpose in his life through a relationship with a chance encounter. His happiness is not meant to last, however, it seems. I say it seems because at the end of the book I was looking for the missing chapter. You know the one where they bring the story to some conclusion, where after reading it you put the book down with a sense that you know what happened. I don't think that chapter exists. I think the author thinks the book was done.

The book is the story of a gem cutter, Krylov, who cuts illegally mined stones. He meets Tanya (who turns out to be the wife of his stone connection). They have an affair premised on the principle that they never learn anything substantial about each other including real names, phone or address. Each day they make a new appointment. If they ever miss one, the chain is broken and they are lost to each other. Of course, they miss one.

At the end of the writing (not the end of the story because that has no conclusion) every character is left a loose end. Krylov may or may not be about to strike it rich, Tania may or may not reconnect with him and the background theme, Russia, may or may not be on the verge of a new revolution.  

The point of reading Russian literature was to get an alternative sense of a Russian mood. I may actually have gotten that. Politically the big question today is about where Russia is headed. Democracy or dictatorship? It could go either way. The Russian people sometimes seem to be helpless observers with no control over their destiny. There is potential for real improvement and there is potential for disaster. It is by no means clear which outcome will manifest. In that sense 2017 is a good metaphor. Krylov is in the same place. Okay I get that. Just one thing, did it really need to take 400 pages to get to that conclusion?