Zakhar Prilepin

ABOUT PRILEPIN'S FIRST NOVEL «PATOLOGII»
"Zakhar Prilepin’s documentary novel about a Chechen military company, became the succès de scandale of the year. For Prilepin, the pathologies he is addressing are not only the Russian military occupation of an autonomous republic and the genocide committed there. First of all, the pathology here is the apathetic cynicism with which post-Soviet society views the inhuman brutalities committed by the out-of-control Russian army. “Pathology” is also the name of a punitive operation undertaken by a subdivision of the Russian special forces, who throughout the novel are busy with the methodical extermination of the entire male population of occupied Grozny. The novel takes the form of a diary written by the main character, who, instead of being tortured by feelings of remorse on account of the atrocities he’s taking part in, only worries about what his sexy mistress back home is getting up to in his absence.
Because of its neutral colloquial language and the density of its plot, Prilepin’s novel reminds one of a medical chart, diagnosing the incurable “pathologies” of Russian society. The society suffers not from simple indifference but from a sad insensitivity. It recognizes the “pathological” injustice of the present political regime, but isn’t ready to give up its comforts in order to present a unified front of resistance.

After Prilepin’s novel, it’s crystal clear: a private withdrawal from the social “pathologies” isn’t possible. But admitting the impossibility of this escape is a condition for new aesthetic and ethical breakthroughs.
CONTEXT (http://www.readcontext.com)