The Tsar of Love and Techno

I stayed away from this book after absolutely loving Marra's A Constellation of Vital Phenomenon. How could any book live up to the lofty expectations set by what I consider one of my top 5 reads. Tsar shows it's not a fluke. Marra is a master and once again I found sentences that stopped me cold. It feels almost manipulative how he's able to illicit larger emotions with the tiniest of gestures. It is a 10 cm square of canvas, a tinfoil wrapped spaceship of the imagination, a cassette tape. And damn funny amidst the bleakness of Russia and heartbreaking without getting mired in the maudlin.

Marra juggles multiple characters inhabiting a collection of interconnected short stories that span 75 years and makes it look easy. The shifts in tone were uneven but maybe it's more the good ones were so good - Alexei's chapter will blow your hair back and the Grozny Tourists bureau hooked me hard.