Sorokin, Vladimir Georgevich, 1955–, Russian writer. Trained as an engineer, he turned to Moscow's underground writing world in the 1980s. His iconoclastic work was banned by the Soviets; his first novel, The Queue, which consists of dialog and sounds of Russians stuck waiting in line, was published in France in 1983 and in English in 1985. Sorokin, who is often categorized as postmodern, attacks a variety of sacred cows including Russian literary classics, propaganda, and the vagaries of Russian government. His wildy imaginative works may be absurd, satirical, or lyrical, and often contain all manner of violence, debauchery, sex, dismemberment, and the like. Popular and prolific, he has written novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, and an opera libretto. Other novels available in English are the dystopian Day of the Oprichnik (2006, tr. 2011) and the phantasmagorical Ice Trilogy (2008, tr. 2011).
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