Escape Hatch & the Long Road Ahead: Two Novellas

by Vladimir Makanin, Mary Ann Szporluk (Translator)

English (translation)
Original Russian

Genres: Russia

193 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Vladimir Makanin (Russian: Владимир Маканин) is a writer of novels and short stories. He graduated from Moscow State University and worked as a mathematician in the Military Academy until the early 1960s. In 1963 he took a course in scriptwriting, and then worked in the publishing house Sovietskiy Pisatel (The Soviet Writer). Makanin's writing style may be categorized as realist. His forte lies in depicting the psychological impact of everyday life experiences.

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two novellas by an author “who has emerged as the most acclaimed writer of the new Russia,” according to the jacket cover. And they wouldn’t be able to say that if it wasn’t true.

ESCAPE HATCH

If you’ve seen one dystopia, you’ve seen ‘em all. Sez I.

THE LONG ROAD AHEAD

Utopias, on the other hand, are each Utopian in their own way. And, not everyone gets to share in the joy. Just ask slaves, or handmaids. Even Thomas Moore thought paradise would be better by burning a few heretics at the stake.

Here, in The Long Road Ahead, we are transported a few hundred years in the future. There is no more war. No more killing of any kind. Including no more killing any animals for food. Oh, it still looks and tastes like a filet mignon, but it’s synthetic protein, probably slushed out of a tube from algae. It’s not explicitly stated, but I imagine you can get the biggie fries with that.

But maybe that’s all a lie. Maybe there’s a place way out in the steppe. A place where cows do not die of old age, if you know what I mean. And maybe if you go there, and you find out the secret, you are never allowed to leave.

I found this second story quite enjoyable, even if I’m not a militant vegetarian. (That didn’t stop me from loving Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.) There’s an interesting structure with characters perhaps recurring then and now. That tightens things up. And, it allows the reader to say: Oh, schizophrenia.

The two female characters are not abused, but neither are they treated heroically, as the men kind of are. Olya, for example, who we like, has something wrong with her, and her job is to lovingly wash the cows’ udders. Kind of handmaid-ish, that. It was nice that she was included anyhow, even as the sole female, in the symbolic act of freedom at the end.

Lastly, if you’re one of those that thinks every book should have at least one koan, there was this: A person cannot be said to be left behind until he’s tried to leave.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange....
dystopian novella's are not for me.

[Lisa Hayden Espenschade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these dystopian novellas: the pleasure of reading Makanin's fiction is that he successfully demonstrates his philosophy and ideas through plot and characters, rather than lectures, making even the strangest actions and places feel quite real. His writing encourages, rather than coerces, the reader to explore their layers of meaning.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading "Escape Hatch, " I had no desire to read the second story. Nothing kills an interesting story quite like a crappy, unsatisfying ending. In this case, it's hard to call it an "ending." It was more akin to an abrupt stop. I could have quit the book at any point and gotten a similar "ending."Too bad, because up until then, it was very promising.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed very much!

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This didn't feel very Russian. More like a nameless country on the verge of collapse, sci fi or alternate reality. Very intriguing!