Book Diary Entry 1: Roadside Picnic (alternative title S.T.A.L.K.E.R)
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| Roadside Picnic: 2012, Cover Chicago Review press. |
Book: Roadside Picnic (alternative title S.T.A.L.K.E.R)
Author: Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Pages: 193
Hard Core Scale: 4/4
Normal Scale: 10/10
Publish Date: 2012 (1972)
About: An event happens creating several zones of unique phenomenon. One zone is near the town of Harmont. Government and military institutions set up to control, study, and regulate these zones. However, an illegal occupation known as being a Stalker crops up to get people and objects in and out of these zone areas illegally. Red Schuhart is a stalker of the Harmont Zone. This is his story, his family’s story, his friends’ story, Harmont’s story, and humanities' story and I cannot do this story justice in summary.
Short Review:
Oh I have craved such a thing for a long time. This is a real masterpiece of science fiction right here. Yes, this is what the S.T.A.L.K.E.R video games and Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterpiece of the film are based on. Yet they are so different. The film itself does not follow the book an inch, character, or plot, just setting (could be different zones in the world). Wonderfully translated into English this new version contains the unedited version that were stripped by the Soviet Union. In fact there is a respect of bravery to the authors as they forced this book through the Soviet Editing process. A rare occurrence; despite the state edits it too is a critique of late Soviet regime before Perestroika. As the book itself: Haunting, beautiful. Characters are very real; everyone is incredibly likable and incredibly dislike-able. There is uncanniness in the book as there is an eagerness to keep reading and to stop reading due to trepidation. It reflects humanity at its finest and at its worst that we are all flawed wonderful human beings in this condition capable of both good and bad and despite our bad at our worst we are still capable of amazing things. A WORD OF WARNING: Table flip ending. This book contains a tableflip ending, when you read it you may wish to flip the table finishing. However, the tableflip ending reflects the whole book and your life and in its metaphors it is acceptable. To that note, I would have probably hated that ending and the book if I was a few years younger. As a middle-aged adult I found that tableflip and the book very comforting. There is a Russian idiom that a man has many souls, he simply outgrows them and I think it made me realize I finally outgrew an old one and despite some loss of innocence it is ok, I am not the same person I used to be, I am human, it is alright to be human, and I am still capable of good. This too; especially loss of innocence and change of self is highly reflected in the work. This is WRITING with a capitol W. I must agree that this is one of the greatest works of science fiction of all time and one of the greatest works of literature of all time. Also, the weird title does make sense in context.
Note I hate this cover: It is a screenshot from the movie, which has nothing to do plot wise from the book. It is a whoring market place there to connect book to film for cash, when well that is some of which the book argues against, a bit of hypocrisy.
