Boris Starling - Vodka (2005)
Vodka is important in Russia. Very important. As a character puts it in one soliloquy: “It is our lifeblood; the defining symbol of Russian identity. It is our main entertainment, our main currency, our main scourge. Vodka effects every aspect of Russian life…it is the great equaliser. If there’s one thing which unites the President with the frozen drunk found dead on a street, it is Vodka… What’s Vodka if not all things to all men? Every aspect of the human condition finds its reflection in Vodka, and its exaggeration, too. Russians drink from grief and from joy, to be warmed in the cold, and cooled in the heat, because we are tired and to get tired."
So, as with the Spice on Herbert’s Dune, he who controls vodka controls Russia. This is why, in the immediate days after the fall of communism - which has left the economy in ruins, the ruble worthless and vodka as the only currency (people are healed with it; people are tortured with it; people’s salaries are paid in it; peopled are bribed with it) - the largest distillery in the country, Red October, is selected as the vehicle to lead the push for privatisation. The quick success of the venture, the selling of such a national symbol, is hoped to convince the Russian people that western capitalism is the only way forward. To organise the privatisation, American banker Alice Liddell is brought in. However, despite her experience the task will not be easy. The Russian people – who “enchant with their arts and inspire with their courage, but have horror, tragedy and drunkenness spiralling through their genes” – are sceptical and thus resistant, and rival mafiya gangs are busy vying for control of the city, leeching off the power vacuum. Lev, the charismatic leader of one of the gangs, currently owns Red October, and Alice – whose life, like that of Russia, is also torn between new and old, comfort and danger, sanity and madness – must first get past him. The great bear, after the fall of the old regime, is stumbling blind, dangerously, into its future, and chaos and uncertainty are the only norms. So, little attention is paid when the body of a child is pulled from the icy Moscow River. And a second. And then a third.
The plot of Vodka is very hard to pin down, because it is a multi-stranded, multi-plotted Janus of a book. In a way, the plot itself is Russian; it exemplifies Russia in myriad ways. Starling’s examination of a country lost in its own wilderness is absolutely astounding. I have never been so struck by wonderful lines such as, “like vodka, the onion is another perfect symbol of Russia. Onions have many layers; and the more you peel away, the more you weep.”
Alice, an outsider who finds herself adrift in a huge confusing land, is a perfect internal reflection of the country itself, and the book is crammed full of other instances of symbolism and metaphor far too clever to be written about in this small space. Set during 100 days in the winter of 1991 (and with one chapter per day, that makes it a meaty tome), it is a tumbleweed of violence, emotion, politics and transition blowing down an icy, deserted street. It is big and complex, panoramic and epic.
The narrative structure too is incredible: it expands and contracts like a Chinese finger-trap as the focus is placed on the political big picture, the distillery and the politick, and then successively switched onto the developing relationship between Alice and Lev (which is less convincing in actuality than it is as a progressive metaphor), and the bleak investigation by a determined Estonian policeman into the child murders. The structure breathes and propels you along with the waves of pace created by the shifts of that focus. A big book it may be, but overlong it is not, and fascinating it is to the final word.
Starling’s vision is powerful and all-encompassing, and there are more than enough profound and striking ruminations on the nature of Russia (and vodka!) to fill a small notebook. One of my favourites is, “There is no such thing as Russian cuisine, only things that go well with vodka.”
The portrait of a country he clearly adores is a remarkable achievement. It is a country where the only system of law that works is the rule of the mafiya. The politicians are corrupt, and the gang-leaders are the only people of any honour – and it is an honour they stick to with pride. Lev, portrayed as he is almost to be the “hero” of the piece, is incensed when a rival Chechen gang breaks the code and involves innocent members of the public, and his retribution is swift and deadly. It is a world turned on its head, and it is entirely convincing. In all honesty, I am awed by Starling’s immense achievement. I ache for more. Apparently, it’s on its way.
The ending, too, is perfect. As the novel ends, with the same lines as it began, Starling seals tight this vast echo-chamber of a novel and sends resonances eddying through the body of it; the serpent eats its own tail; the monster consumes itself, and the book - and Russia - seems to come full circle. As a Russian official puts it: “every Russian crime is cannibalistic to some extent; no people feed on and off each other more than the Russians.”
Posted by Fiona Walker in Book Reviews | Permalink
