Not sure what I was expecting when I started Apricot, but it ain't as recent as I was lead to believe (from where I decided to read it, I'm not so sure). Solzhenitsyn originally published these short stories in 1994 when he returned to Russia; this collection, then, is a recently published translation - hence the 2011 publishing date. S. died in 2008.
My most honest excuse was that I was given a glimpse into the world of Shteyngart's Absurdistan (which I'll hopefully be reviewing at a later date) before embarking on Apricot Jam, and I was driven out of my skull with boredom. Some of them have interesting premises that ultimately go nowhere, but the influx of names and ranks - never explained - just boggled my mind.
If you like reading about the failure of the Soviet state, or have heard of The Gulag Archipelago, definitely check it out. As for me, I took a year-long course on Soviet history, so this isn't really anything new - well, in fact, most of the references I remembered from my University days are what sparked some lights in me, but...
...on to Shteyngart!
