Ice (New York Review Books (Hardcover)) [Hardcover]

And the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?"

These questions from the Book of Job serve as an appropriate theme for introducing Russian novelist Vladimir Sorokin's novel "Ice". Sorokin's work is well-known in Russia and much of Europe. One of his earlier books, Blue Lard, was the subject of a lawsuit brought by a Russian nationalist group claiming that his depiction of `intimate relations' between a clone of Stalin and a clone of Khrushchev was pornographic and defamed the Russian people. Not unexpectedly the suit resulted in a tremendous increase in sales.

To my knowledge, Ice, is the first book of Sorokin that has been translated into English. The first volume of a planned trilogy, Ice is born in violence. A group of blonde-haired, blue-eyed thugs (or so they seem) roaming the streets of Moscow find and kidnap blonde-haired, blue-eyed strangers, tie them up and hammer them mercilessly with a hammer made out of ice. The attackers listen to their victims. They are asked to speak "with their hearts". Most of their victims simply die from the beatings. But every now and again they find someone who manages to gurgle out a word from their heart. They are released and processed into a small, very secret brotherhood of other heart-seekers.

Part I of Ice introduces the reader to the `heart people" and the rather violent method of finding and recruiting new members. Part II provides the back story. In 1908 a large meteor crashed into the tundra of a remote part of Siberia. (Curiously this event also plays a role in Thomas Pynchon's new book "Against the Day"). The meteor consists of a huge piece of intergalactic ice, the "hoary frost of heaven" perhaps. The group uses the ice to break the ice that covers the hearts of humanity and has turned humanity into a collection of empty shells. Interestingly, the secret group's members in the 1930s and 1940s include high ranking members of the USSR's KGB (or NKVD) and Hitler's Gestapo. It is no surprise that Aryan features are a prerequisite for membership in the brotherhood. Part III is a rather bizarre look at a world in which "Ice" kits are sold that allow individual to perform their own self-awakening. Part III consists of testimonials of people who have used the kit.

I raced through "Ice" in one sitting but remain ambivalent about how I feel about it. I could not put the book down once I started it, but at the same time the book was more than a bit discomforting. Ultimately, Vladimir Sorokin's "Ice" is not a novel designed to warm the hearts of the reader. I've seen some reviews that compare him to Gogol and others to French-author Michel Houellebecq. I think, of the two, that the comparison to Houellebecq is the more apt. They each do an excellent job of painting a grim picture of individuals and societies as an example of both moral and physical decay. I finished "ICE" thinking that the story really had not even started, that there was a lot more for Sorokin to say. The Books of Psalms asks: "He casteth forth his ice like morsels. Who can stand before his cold?" Psalms. It will be interesting to see where Sorokin takes his ice and his cold in the next two volumes.

Highly recommended despite, or perhaps because of, the discomfort engendered by reading it. L. Fleisig

This one has no ritualistic hyperviolence, anal sex among Communist party leaders, chapters of nearly impenetrable dialogue in "New Chinese". Ice ("Liod") is the slickest, least formally challenging and graphically brutal book so far, that is nevertheless quite mysanthropic at its core. Sorokin is actually using a "Star Wars"-type of a marketing tool: initially releasing part 2 of a trilogy (the prequel, "Put' Bro" was released in Russia a year later, and last year saw the release of the entire trilogy, concluded by the part 3, "23000")

I have not read any of Sorokin's books in english translation, so cannot vouch that it does justice to the originals. He is a very powerful contemporary Russian writer and definitely deserves attention of those who enjoy the works of Pelevin and WM Burroughs.

Sorokin's "Ice" is a good representative of a modern trend in Russian literature and film.

The novel starts with the scene in Moscow, where several, so it appears, thugs, performing a sadistic experiment: they maniacally hit a blond and blue-eyed man on the chest with a hammer made of a block of ice.

As it turns out, the purpose is to find another member of a secret community, who can be recognized because he would cry out the name of his heart, his true name, after being hit with ice. And not just the ordinary ice, but only the ice from the remains of the Tunguska meteorite, the ideal cosmic substance... There are exactly twenty-three thousand of brothers and sisters, dispersed around the globe and when all would be found, they will rule the world and get it to the end.

The book is interesting and dynamically written, although the plot gets a little predictable after a while. There are chosen people in hiding, forming a secret society opposing the present reality, there are hints of a new dictatorship, a Russian curse, there is brutality and money-oriented attitude of the ordinary people who want to survive in the changed world around them. The mix of science-fiction and contemporary Russian reality is a common theme exploited by many authors. I think Pielewin in "Generation"P"" did it better, because he managed to shed some light on a real problem, Russia dealing with capitalism and consumer society. The classic of this genre is, of course, the movie "Nightwatch" ("Nocznyj dozor"), a must-see for everyone.

Having said that, I would like to add that Sorokin writes skillfully and the novel reads well. The descriptions of the mystic experiences of "heart to heart" love between brothers and sisters are quite remarkable. "Ice" is a good book, it is just not a new subject (except for being a satire on a modern sectarian language) and there were others who did it better.