The Tsar of Love and Techno
By: Anthony Marra
My Rating: Four out of five stars
Best for: 18 and up

Sometimes history sounds made up…

Russia is a HARD place. I lived there for two years in the mid 1990’s as a missionary. It was bleak, but among the bleak were very bright stars that wanted change and desired better for their children. I’ll likely never go back, but I sure wish I could bring some of those I met back home. If only I could have read The Tsar of Love and Techno before I moved there! I would have understood their stories and their past so much better because the stories and the experiences in this book are the stories and experiences of the people I became close to. I met Chechens. I met addicts. I met the mob. I met honest people who tried to run a honest businesses but couldn’t. I met sons who were sent to the army at 18. I met babushkas who couldn’t trust. I met people who didn’t have access to medical care. I met people who worked and worked and didn’t get paid. I saw the statues of Lenin and Stalin and tributes to the Great Wars and felt their iron grip over the people, their culture, and their attitudes.

The stories in The Tsar of Love and Techno made me feel like I was back there, and I felt like the representative people and their stories were the real people I met and the friends I made. Their experiences were big, and usually not positive.

Anthony Marra’s The Tsar of Love and Techno is a poignant exploration of love, loss, and the enduring human spirit against the backdrop of Communist Russia, of barely-post Communist Russia, of Russia at war with Chechnya. The tale is told through interconnected stories, spanning generations and geographies, that weave together a tapestry of trauma and resilience that resonates deeply with me as I put faces of those I knew on those in the book.

The words are both lyrical and unflinching, capturing the beauty and brutality of life with equal measure. The characters, from a young soldier grappling with the horrors of war to a censor manipulating history, are complex but real. Their stories are imbued with a sense of history and place, as the author accurately explores the lasting impact of the Soviet era and the Chechen conflict.

One of the novel’s greatest strengths is that it’s able to find those bright lights I saw, some moments of hope and tenderness amidst the darkness, small though they were. The love stories, are as inspiring as they are heartbreaking. The use of art as a means of healing and preserving memory touched me in all the ways.

There isn’t a lot that isn’t heavy when talking about Russia, and that is the case in these connected stories. But I did enjoy the trip through history, and it was fun trying to figure out how the seemingly random stories connected in the end.

Certain of the harder characters used quite a bit of strong language. No other significant content concerns. This dad says The Tsar of Love and Techno is best for 18 and up.

Happy reading!