Fafajockling

I have read 100 novels from Russia, but that was fiction; not too much nonfiction... or it has been fictionalized in that Soviet way. But this... This is hard-hitting longform journalism, very gripping. At first it seems like fun and games, trailer parks and prostitutes and hard-edge punks in abandoned buildings. Then it gets so rough that it was like Kolyma Tales, one of the most brutal books I have picked up. Like that one, I found myself putting this book down and saying, "Man, I don't need to be reading this heavy stuff. Life is too short." Then I'd come crawling back. If you want a good, quick understanding of Putin's rise and what the state looks like, I recommend this book and Putin's People by Catherine Belton. Both books are hard to put down while being gut-wrenching to read. Russia is a place full of torment, suffering. Like a troubled person who destroys themselves, destroys others who try to help them, or hurt them, whatever... the worl...