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+title = "Monday Begins on Saturday (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, 1965)"
+author = ["Michał Sapka"]
+date = 2025-01-08T19:48:00+01:00
+categories = ["reviews"]
+draft = false
+weight = 2016
+reviewSection = ["Books"]
+abstract = "My review of the novel"
+rating = 3.75
+image = "reviews/covers/monday-begins-on-saturday-1965.jpg"
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+
+_Monday Begins on Saturday_ is yet another Science Fiction novel by Strugatsky Brothers I've read this year.
+It is also the weirdest one of those!
+
+Aleksandr Ivanovich Privalov is a young programmer (warning: there no computers in the novel) on his way to his newly assigned position.
+His car breaks down, he meets strange fellows who recruit him to a nearby "Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry".
+Yup - this is not run of the mill institute, as we're not dealing with boring stuff, like physics.
+Instead we've got magic, magical beasts and the pursuit to define happiness.
+Nice combination, if you ask me.
+
+Strugaccy stray from western tropes.
+Their adventure as writers started deep into praising socialism - we'll go to space and show them all the nice things communism brings!
+With time, they've abandoned the hope.
+_Monday..._ was released right after _[Hard to be God](/reviews/books/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964/)_ and they show striking similarities.
+The latter was a grim tale about the terrible nature of man, where happiness does not exist.
+This book is a funny novel about the terrible nature of the world, where happiness is as real as a Baba Yaga.
+It's also a great critical analysis of soviet ideas, but for that I much preferred _[Moscow 2042](/reviews/books/moscow-2042-1986/)_.
+
+What the authors managed to achieve to make all the magic elements mundane.
+Not by weaknesses of the plot (it's not a YA novel), but on purpose.
+It's studied, it's analyzed, it's understood.
+The characters analyze it without any emotion, much like things are thougt in school.
+The idea is great, but it may be confusing for western audiences as it's rooted in Russian folklore.
+I am Polish, so I've been subjected to it quite early on.
+But would reading some classic folk tales help?
+No, not really.
+The fantastic elements are not treated with any seriousness.
+They simply _are_ there to be studied.
+It's the anti-Shrek where most of the jokes are based on you knowing who a magical beast is.
+
+The **actual** subject of the story is great, but it requires some knowledge about Marxism to be seen.
+Deep in the USSR Scientific communism was te norm.
+Everything could have been analyzed and understood; proletariat's domination was to be scientific fact.
+Here we see it put the limit - magical beast are to be analyzed, equated and understood.
+_Monday..._ is too smart of it's own good, as it may be very easily misunderstood.
+
+Sadly, I have more gripes with how the novel is constructed, as we're seemingly without a plot.
+The Institute and Privalov (aka Sasha, don't ask me how it's his nickname) who is slowly learning about magic is the only element connecting individual pages.
+The actual story is presented as series of disjointed stories, each with it's own begging and end.
+Sure, some stories may conclude much later, but they don't build on each other.
+The novel consits of three parts, and each following is less and less guilty of that, but it's never a _novel_ in a common sense.
+
+The Institute is occupied by wonderfully mad characters, much like Invisible Institute from Discworld.
+We've got a former grand inquisitor in charge of the Department of Meaning of Life; a director who has two personalities which have no idea what the other one is doing.
+Some ideas are also amazingly creative - have you ever heard of using a genie as a a bomb?
+Each single part of the novel is great, but I had problem with the complete set.
+It's a collection of short stories with overarching plot and nothing pushed me forward.
+Heck, I even incured a fine from the library, as it took me very long to get to reading and then (despite the small length) to finish.
+
+Personally, I enjoyed the last part the most as the final mystery is revealed and it's a very intriguing concept.
+
+So, as I've praised and recommended all Strugasky Brothers novels up to this, I have a bit of problem here.
+As I've finished it a few months ago and had some time to digest it, I consider it another bullseye.
+But when I read it, I had much more problems, as the story-based structure is much less gripping that a full-on novel.
+I'm glad I've read it, but I will never re-read it.