The Tsar of Love and Techno

What a beautiful mind Marra has. Such compassion, and such a gift with language. It's like he took that “everyone you meet is fighting a great battle” adage to heart, deeply to heart, and wants us to as well so he pummels us with it mercilessly for hundreds of pages except his pummeling is tender and lyrical and loving and sweet and funny and poignant. We loathe his characters then love them then ultimately recognize ourselves in them — we are all products of broken environments and flawed systems.Marra has a taste for the absurd, both comic and tragic (note to self: continue pondering whether there's any difference), and the Russian / Chechnyan settings he chooses offer plenty of senseless tragedy, loss of life and soul, which Marra uses as opportunity to highlight the resilience of human spirit.Some excerpts I simply have to share:We fell in and out of love with fevered frequency. We constantly became people we would later regret having been.I have human friends, obviously. But everything's easier with a cat. He wants a little fish soup in a saucer and the occasional scratch on the head. I want the illusion that an animal bred to trade affection for food can understand the inquietudes of my soul.They were building a life of small kindnesses together. Some days it was extraordinary.I probably shouldn't've read this so closely on the heels of [b:Constellation 16141936 A Constellation of Vital Phenomena Anthony Marra https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1368039202l/16141936.SY75.jpg 19926928] because, like friend K., I want nothing so much as to start it all over again; but unlike K. I just can't justify the time right now. Pick this up when you have time - lots of time.