2.5/5

I spent most of this book thinking of other books, which didn't work out to its favor within such a short span. Now, I've read a lot of horror, but that mostly happened back when I was young and impressionable, and the spine tingling sort of thing I prefer these days is the terror provoked by inescapable sociopolitical realities, sometimes subtle, sometimes not so much. A perfect example of the building subtlety to an inescapable crescendo was my recently read [b:Scenes from Village Life|11984245|Scenes from Village Life|Amos Oz|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328836780i/11984245._SY75_.jpg|7123264] by Oz, which really brought home to me that there's some hope for me yet when it comes to short stories, as well as gave me another author to look for at my subsequent sales. For Petrushevskaya, lots of promises in the introduction, lots of overtly sociopolitically motivated plot lines, but ultimately, a whole lot of telling that almost always punctured the tension and left the reader feeling less than uneasy, and thus less than satisfied, at the resolution. Plus, if someone says post-apocalyptic, I'm going to think Tolstaya's [b:The Slynx|310722|The Slynx|Tatyana Tolstaya|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320532928i/310722._SY75_.jpg|3535], and while this work's 'The New Robinson Crusoes was one of the better entries, it just didn't go anywhere as interesting as other works have gone. Tolstaya's also great with short stories, so ultimately, when it comes to Russian women writers, anyone I read these days is going to encounter some stiff competition, for better or worse.

I got [b:My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me|7945295|My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me Forty New Fairy Tales|Kate Bernheimer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348752105i/7945295._SY75_.jpg|11460338] and [b:Snow White, Blood Red|141024|Snow White, Blood Red|Ellen Datlow|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387746798i/141024._SY75_.jpg|135922] vibes one too many times to have satisfyingly engaged with most of this. Certain standouts such as "The Arm", "Incident at Sokolniki", the aforementioned "The New Robinson Crusoes", "The Fountain House", and "The Shadow Life" got close to that balance of eeriness and sociopolitical commentary that I was looking for, while those such as "The Black Coat", "Two Kingdoms", and "The Miracle" couldn't resist giving up the ghost and identifying the parable, or metaphor, or landscape of sin that was currently being narratologically brought to life. The rest were rather flat, although both "My Love" and "The Old Monk's Testament" had the potential to be heartwarming if they hadn't both been overly moral fablesque at the conclusion. I'm glad that Petrushevskaya isn't being blocked from writing/publishing in Russia anymore (as far as I know), but I'm going to have to agree with certain reviews of this that the marketing of this particular edition dumbed down the stories way too much, and I'm even going as far to wonder whether the mentality of translating 'scary fairy tales' affected the Anglo results I read here. Disappointing, but I'm still committed to reading [b:The Time: Night|917339|The Time Night|Ludmilla Petrushevskaya|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348776318i/917339._SY75_.jpg|902414], as it has a much greater chance of giving me that sociopolitical commentary that I'm craving in my shorter reads these days.

I had this book on my GR shelf for seven years and on my physical shelves for two, so the lengthy time it took me to get to this book was certainly a factor in my piss poor rating. However, it just brings it home to me that perilous state of translations in the Anglo market: 3% of publications, little guarantee of being done well, and next to no guarantee of lack of capitalistic corruption. My only solution is to keep reading and get through some of the poor souls who have been on my shelves for far too long despite my having interested in multiple works of theirs. All in all, not too interested in Petrushevskaya's other sensationally titled Anglo collections, but still holding out hope for the other work I have of hers. I suppose these days I have little patience for not being allowed to think, imagine, and ponder; or tales of woe that want to discourse on reality but all too quickly offer an easy way out. Looking back on these, I realize what I want to read are things both inconclusive and realist, which is likely the complete opposite of the portrait international markets paint of US tastes in literature and why my luck with translations didn't turn out so well with this work. Oh well. This tome is great material for any animator/drama producer looking to put on something short for a personal project and/or portfolio. In terms of scariness? For someone who falls asleep to watching people play horror games, not so much.

Spoiler...Russian fairy tales are dark. Very dark.

These stories were very cool and interesting, some were confusing, but the experience overall was very good

Small, dark stories with terrible, fairy tale beauty. For anyone who likes Kelly Link and unusual storytelling.

• The Black Coat
• Hygiene
• There’s Someone in the House
• The New Robinson Crusoes

I'm not sure what made the University librarians put this in the "Juvenile Fiction" section. These stories aren't for children. They're very morbid and sad and... Russian. Like old-timey, sad Russia. As is often the case with short story collections, this was hit and miss, but if dark, foreign fairy tales are your bag, hit this up.