The Queue

by Vladimir Sorokin

Other authorsSally Laird (Translator)

Paperback, 2008

Status

Available

Call number

891.7344

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

NYRB Classics (2008), Paperback, 273 pages

Description

"Vladimir Sorokin's first published novel, The Queue, is a sly comedy about the late Soviet years of stagnation. Thousands of citizens are in line for . . . nobody knows quite what, but the rumors are flying. Leather or suede? Jackets, jeans? Turkish, Swedish, maybe even American? It doesn't matter-if anything is on sale, you better line up to buy it. Sorokin's tour de force of ventriloquism and formal daring tells the whole story in snatches of unattributed dialogue, adding up to nothing less than the real voice of the people, overheard on the street as they joke and curse, fall in and out of love, slurp down ice cream or vodka, fill out crossword puzzles, even go to sleep and line up again in the morning as the queue drags on."

User reviews

LibraryThing member kvanuska

Tired of standing in line this holiday season? Well, nothing you faced could compare to the thousands of Muscovites who wait in line in Sorokin's The Queue. Yes, thousands. In Soviet style, people join the line when they hear some imported good is at the head of it -- shoes, coats, jeans, who knows

what awaits the winners who make it to the front? Sorokin wrote this dialogue-only novel as his ode to the long-lost Soviet queue -- a unique beast that I saw in action during my time in Leningrad in the 1980's, but which, out of sheer stubborness, I avoided becoming part of.

This is the first and only pure dialogue novel I've ever read. Even more unnerving than having no narrative is the fact that there are no tag lines with the dialogue. Crafty, humorous writer that Sorokin is, setting, characters and conflict emerge, and we ultimately follow the hapless Vadim, through flirtations and fights, through sleep (announced by blank pages) and drinking binges, even the start of a love affair, all while he waits in this never-ending queue. The translator, Sally Laird, does an excellent job of making sense of Russian and Soviet jargon and slang. Anyone who's been part of a massive crowd or, god forbid, a queue, will find much to laugh over in this book.

(Note: Sorokin has an excellent essay in the afterward of thiis novel about the end of the queue. An abridged version of this essay can be found in the Borders Without Words anthology, Wall in my Head: Words and Images from the Fall of the Iron Curtain, which I reviewed in the December issue of The Quarterly Conversation)

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LibraryThing member cameling

Who hasn't eavesdropped on a conversation taking place at the next table, or when standing in line at the post office? This book is an eavesdropper's treasure trove. The entire book is a series of short conversations between people standing in line in Moscow. You don't quite know what they're

standing in line for, and it doesn't appear that they people in line do too. But if there's something for sale, people will stand in line for it anyway, just in case.

The snippets of conversations overheard are between a mother and her young son, a man and a young woman who meet while standing in line, an elderly man looking for drink while his wife stands in another line elsewhere, someone doing the crossword puzzle and other people who drift in and out of the line, running errands while others keep their place for them or stopping for a bite to eat in a cafe. It's ordinary conversation with real voices.

I didn't think there could be a story formed through short comments that aren't even written as a screenplay, but it works. It really works. The only part of the book I thought could have been shortened without losing the rhythm was the part when the sales clerk ran through a roll call of names.

But there is an ironical twist at the end which will make the reader chuckle.

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LibraryThing member sbloom42

If you like "Waiting for Godot", this book is for you. I personally love Godot, and I found this book just as enthralling. I can easily imagine it translated to the stage, especially since the entire text is nothing but dialog. No character descriptions, no setting descriptions. Just the back and

forth that you would hear if you were standing in a line for days on end. And yet, somehow characters and familiar voices emerge. Relationships develop, fall apart, and rise from the ashes. The state of Russia in the 1970s is touched upon, and the notion that the privileged few get to skip the lines is front and center in the story. I was surprised when I reached the end of the book, because I had become so familiar with the characters I expected to hear them going on about their problems for many more pages. The relationship that develops at the end of the book is unexpected, especially the intensity of it, but it was a very satisfying way to end the tale.

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LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind

Interesting little book - plays fast and loose with the rules of writing. Describes life inside of a massive line during the Brezhnev stagnation of the Soviet Union. Consists wholly of dialogue and the rituals of boredom and monotony in life. A fun little book, and I'll have read the rest of

Sorokin later.

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LibraryThing member sparemethecensor

Absolutely wonderful. Hilarious, heartbreaking, and inventive. The experimental style -- all dialogue -- adds rather than detracts from the narrative. While this will be most accessible to those familiar with Soviet life and literature, any reader can enjoy it.

I would love to see a stage show of

this.

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LibraryThing member Mithril

Excellent classic.

LibraryThing member b.masonjudy

Sorokin's first novel is written entirely in lines of dialogue and though a narrative emerges the main function of the novel makes you feel as if you're also standing in a queue. This isn't an easy feat and technically I'd say it's an impressive debut but it's also an experiment and I didn't think

the experiment was a success. If you're interested in experimental fiction and would like to capture the essence of waiting in a line, with all it's shoving and politics, I'd say check out The Queue, otherwise I wouldn't recommend adding it to your reading list.

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