Plasticine

by Vassily Sigarev, Sasha Dugdale

A 24-year old playwright from Western Siberia, winner of the Anti-Booker Prize.

Genres: Theatre

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've seen Russian cinema, you have to know what does it mean "Chernukha". It's like hyper realism which is full of sadness and suffering.
In Plasticine Sigarev decides to tell his story in a different way. He creates smt that I would call magic chernukha. It's a world which is so real, but at the same time it feels like a surrealistic dream.
Maksim (the main character) is a boy who wants nothing. However he has a plasticine. Plasticine is everything. It can be a dick, a weapon or smt unrecognizable. Maksim is the same. Like plasticine, Maksim lacks agency. The surrounding reality molds him into a formless nothing. The plot is formless too, it starts from nothing and ends with nothing. There is sex, blood, rape, criminals, school, death, SHE, fights, friends and still nothing.
Maybe this is a simple story about growing up? I think it's rather a simple story about life.

[Cezara Iy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminded me of Irvine Welsh would love to stage it

[Daria · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a man's book and that's all I'll say on that; not a huge fan.

[MaeReadABook (Mae Walker) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for school. Oof.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visually interesting and emotional, but since there is essentially no let up in the string of bad things that happen to this character you start to get numb to them. It paints a vivid picture but I wish there was slightly more balance

[Linda Liu · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5