Faithful Ruslan by Georgi Vladimov
My rating: 5/5 cats
oh, my god.
what a fantastic book.
don’t get me wrong, it is insanely sad, but for most of the book, it is sad in the way it is sad when you are still desperately in love with someone who has lost interest in you and moved on- there is a masochistic pleasure in the depths of your misery as you tail-wag your way around them, trying to rekindle the love you know is still in there.it is sad and desperate and demeaning, but there is a spark of hope that makes it all worthwhile.
for a lot of the book, this is ruslan. this is a “he’s just not that into you” story that takes place between a dog and a prison guard after one of stalin’s gulags has been dismantled, and in a genius move the dogs, trained to guard, corral, and attack prisoners when the need arose, were set free into the woods and the town, still trained with highly specific skills and loyal to one master.
and ruslan wants his master back.
(incidentally – stalin was a serious dick. i don’t know if you know that, but man… what an asshole)
torn between his duty and loyalty, and the most basic struggles for survival, he remains true to his training, despite seeing other former prison dogs eventually succumb to the comforts of food and shelter and civilian life. but for ruslan, the camp and its strictures is his entire life. duty is everything.
he moves through the town, translating everything he sees through the filter of his training, wondering when the guards are going to come back and whip all these “prisoners” into shape for their transgressions.
it is a killer novel. there are so many scenes that are powerful and shocking, and i don’t even want to talk about it because it is so short, and this neversink series is 2/2 for me, and i want you all to go out and get them all and be wowed.
i mean, it is a dog POV, which can turn some people off, but it’s a dog with a highly intelligent mind and a narrow worldview:
many times ruslan had noticed that humans often did things that they didn’t like, and without any compulsion – something that no animal would ever do. it was significant that in ruslan’s hierarchy the highest rank was held by the masters, who always knew what was good and what was bad; next in order were dogs, while prisoners came last of all. although they were bipeds, they were still not quite people. none of them, for instance, would dare give orders to a dog, yet their lives were partly controlled by dogs. in any case, how could they give sensible orders when they were all so stupid? they were obviously stupid because they kept on thinking that there was some sort of better life far away from the camp and beyond the forests – a piece of nonsense that would never enter the head of a guard dog. as if to prove their stupidity, they would run away and wander alone for months, perishing with hunger, instead of staying in camp and eating their favorite food – prison gruel, for a bowl of which they were prepared to slit each others’ throats. and when they did return, looking abashed, they would still go on thinking up new ways to escape. poor fools! they were never, never happy, wherever they were.
this is a perfect example of a wild intelligence marred by a pinpoint perspective, which in a human, could be termed “propaganda”, but in a dog, is just rigorous training.
and there’s this part… nah, better not.
but i can talk about it graphically. this is a beautiful cover, but a little misleading.the whole time i was reading, i was picturing ruslan as some kind of german shepherd dog. after i read the book, i did a little GIS-ing, and this is what ruslan’s breed looks like:
http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch…
in other words, the biggest dog in the entire world. oh my god, can you imagine being herded by a group of dogs like that? i like dogs, and i am terrified of how big that dog is. i would be the best prisoner ever to avoid being tackled by a dog like that.
so, yeah.
good book.
