Saturday, March 12, 2016

Review: The Tsar of Love and Techno

In The Tsar of Love and Techno, nine interconnected stories span centuries in Russia and Chechnya. The characters vary, from a censor in the 1930s to soldiers to women recounting the history and sacrifices of their grandmothers. Each story stands on its own, but the beauty and subtlety with which Marra connects these people will drive readers back to reading it again and again to find the threads.

Roman Markin is the protagonist of the first story. He is an artist who paints away the faces of people who are no longer in favor of the government. He is struck by a picture of a beautiful ballerina. In the second story, Galina, the granddaughter of that very dancer, is crowned in a local beauty pageant. We later follow Galina's first love as he has his heart broken and searches for peace and purpose.

While the events of this book are often heartbreaking, there is a sense of wry humor throughout. In "The Grozny Tourist Bureau," we meet a man who is charged with making a tourism service for the city of Grozny in the metaphorical and actual rubble of years of war. Throughout each story, there is a sense that the future is a very uncertain thing. We might as well chuckle at the absurdity of it all.

The Tsar of Love and Techno is just as wonderful as Marra's debut novel. The characters are compelling and the writing is equally likely to sweep you off your feet or feel like an emotional punch to the gut. As I sit here writing this review, I find myself itching to read it again. Mr. Marra is quickly becoming one of the authors whose books I will read, buy, and love each and every time.


The Tsar of Love and Techno
By Anthony Marra
Hogarth October 2015
352 pages
Read via Netgalley

10 comments:

  1. This author is new to me. It must have been a good book to want to read it again right away. It sounds interesting.

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    1. It was a great read (and so is his other book). I enjoy books where you can go back a second time and pick up things you missed.

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    1. Wasn't it wonderful? Now we will have to wait impatiently for the next one...

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  3. I read his first book and loved it. I need to check this out!

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  4. Oh yay! I'm so glad you enjoyed this too :) I also liked the combination of humor and tragedy, as well as the hopefulness at times. I think that's what has made me like both of Marra's books so much.

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    1. Agreed. It's tough to read never-ending pain and tragedy. I appreciated his wry humor so much.

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  5. I just finished this last week, and I loved it. I actually forgot it was linked stories while I was reading it and read it like a novel. Now I almost feel like I need to go back and read it one story at a time.

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    1. I think that's one of the coolest things about it. It is very much a novel and very much a short story collection. How did he do that?!?

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