The Island of Crimea
by Vassily Aksyonov
On This Page
Description
"The Island of Crimea" - one of the most important books of Vasily Aksyonov, the author has made famous throughout the world - sensational dystopia, social and political satire, not an attempt to portray the Russian Communist influence. This is a book about Russia, we have lost that delivers the copyright an idea how the story would have developed if the Crimea remained independent isolated "Russian" state.Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
My second Aksyonov, having read the excellent The Burn a couple of years ago. I wasn't quite so excited about The Island of Crimea, but it was still a very good read.
The book plays with the idea that the Crimea (here and island, not a peninsula) resisted the Bolsheviks in 1917, and has become an outpost of democracy for Russian people. There is an analogy to Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. The story follows the Crimean political elite, who identify themselves as Russians and are pushing for stronger ties, even reunification, with the USSR. Aksyonov uses this device to examine the interactions between the political forces at work in the USSR (and on his semi-fictional island), such as socialism, nationalism and capitalism. His focus is on show more Luchnikov, a powerful media magnate, pushing for stronger bonds with Moscow, as he confronts intrigues both at home, and in Moscow.
The Island of Crimea is awash with Aksyonov's trademark satirical bite. The story borders on the absurd in many places, but still produces a fairly stern examination of the forces for political and social change in the USSR. There were perhaps an overabundance of pointless sex, and a few too many narrative threads for a relatively short book, but its main thrusts still hit home. Indeed the relative silliness of some of the book makes the emotional lows even more painful, as Aksyonov (mostly) successfully treads a fine line between farce and satire. It was a fairly unique take on 1970s Soviet socialism, and worth a read for that alone. Aksyonov is a writer who I have planned to read again for a long while, and The Island of Crimea certainly didn't disappoint. show less
The book plays with the idea that the Crimea (here and island, not a peninsula) resisted the Bolsheviks in 1917, and has become an outpost of democracy for Russian people. There is an analogy to Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. The story follows the Crimean political elite, who identify themselves as Russians and are pushing for stronger ties, even reunification, with the USSR. Aksyonov uses this device to examine the interactions between the political forces at work in the USSR (and on his semi-fictional island), such as socialism, nationalism and capitalism. His focus is on show more Luchnikov, a powerful media magnate, pushing for stronger bonds with Moscow, as he confronts intrigues both at home, and in Moscow.
The Island of Crimea is awash with Aksyonov's trademark satirical bite. The story borders on the absurd in many places, but still produces a fairly stern examination of the forces for political and social change in the USSR. There were perhaps an overabundance of pointless sex, and a few too many narrative threads for a relatively short book, but its main thrusts still hit home. Indeed the relative silliness of some of the book makes the emotional lows even more painful, as Aksyonov (mostly) successfully treads a fine line between farce and satire. It was a fairly unique take on 1970s Soviet socialism, and worth a read for that alone. Aksyonov is a writer who I have planned to read again for a long while, and The Island of Crimea certainly didn't disappoint. show less
Great idea, terrible outcome. Pseudo-intellectual pretensions. I expected so much more from this book. Not a single plausible, or at lease semi-believable, female character.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Published Reviews
ThingScore 58
This fantasy, verging at times on the techniques of science fiction, is done with wit and an even greater amount of Russian gusto. Its defect, not uncommon in the genre, is that the point is grasped too early, and that the jokes become with repetition a little on the heavy side. Gulliver is not only himself an ambiguous consciousness, but his travels surprise us constantly with new and ever show more more disquieting perspectives. Like his émigré colleagues Aksyonov is too singly concerned to thumb his nose at Soviet Russia and to laugh the modern world out of its follies. show less
added by aprille
''THE ISLAND OF CRIMEA'' is a stunning performance, reading for much of its length like a bizarre yet joyous collaboration between Dostoyevsky and Thomas Pynchon. It is a profoundly political and contemporary statement but with none of the shrillness and compromise with literary quality we have almost come to expect from books of its kind. Mr. Aksyonov is brilliantly served by his translator, show more Michael Henry Heim, who leaves us with the startling image of a ''helicopter-speckled sky.'' show less
added by aprille
The story veers every which way as this accomplished satirist plays with the mutual attractions and revulsions of a wide-open society that seems to be inviting chaos (there's more than a touch of the United States in Crimea) and a closed society that is engineered to quash every spontaneous impulse.
added by aprille
Lists
Russian Literature
184 works; 33 members
Books Read in 2023
5,547 works; 145 members
Author Information
68+ Works 1,232 Members
Vassily Aksyonov was born in Kazan, Russia on August 20, 1932. His parents were victims of the Stalin-era repressions. He was raised in an orphanage. He graduated from the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Medical Institute in 1956 and worked as a doctor for the next three years. His first stories were published in 1958 in the popular journal Yunost show more (Youth). His first novel, Colleagues, was published in 1961. In the 1970s, his work was kept from publication by Soviet censors. In 1979, he along with several others published the journal Metropol, which featured works that did not receive official permission to appear. He lived in the United States from 1980 to 2004 and taught Russian literature at several American universities including George Mason University and Goucher College. His works include A Ticket to the Stars, The Burn, Oranges from Morocco, The Island of Crimea, In Search of Melancholy Baby and Generations of Winter. He won the Russian Booker Prize in 2004 for his novel Voltairiens and Voltairiennes. He died on July 6, 2009 at the age of 76. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Notable Lists
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Остров Крым
- Original title
- Остров Крым
- Original publication date
- 1981
- People/Characters
- Andrei Arsenievich Luchnikov; Marlen Mikhailovich Kuzenkov; Arseny Nikolaevich Luchnikov; Anton Andreevich Luchnikov; Krystyna; Pamela (show all 20); Freddy Buturlin; Faddeich; Tatyana Nikitichna Lunina; Vitaly Gangut; Dmitri “Dim Shebeko” Kuzenkov; Vera Pavlovna Kuzenkov; Colonel Chernok; J.P. “Octopus” Halloway; Pyotr Sabashnikov; General Vitold Yakovevich Von Witte; Slava; Vadim Beklemishev; Boris Teodorovich Wrangel; Timofei Lukich Ptotopopov
- Important places
- Crimea; Moscow, USSR; Paris, France
- Original language
- Russian
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Science Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 891.73 — Literature & rhetoric Literatures of other languages East Indo-European and Celtic literatures Russian and East Slavic languages Russian fiction
- LCC
- PG3478 .K7 .O813 — Language and Literature Slavic languages and literatures. Baltic languages. Albanian language Slavic. Baltic. Albanian Russian literature Individual authors and works 1961-2000
Statistics
- Members
- 153
- Popularity
- 213,095
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.28)
- Languages
- 9 — Bulgarian, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 25
- ASINs
- 2
