Let's put the future behind us Book

Jack Womack is a painfully underrated writer. This book, I hear, is not his best but that is saying something as his characterization and voice here is incredibly strong. Strong enough that the extremely violent satire loses any cartoonish feel because the voice is so convincingly Russian and completely grounded in the world of 1990s post-Soviet Russia. Admittedly the conception of new Russia is that of early 1990s, and Putin's Russia is probably not a good analogue for the background. It is also a fairly interesting send up of both attempting to be an honest businessman in a fundamentally dishonest society and attempts to return to romantic pasts. While I will try to avoid spoilers: Superficially the plot seems to develop towards victory, but on deeper reading, the end can actually be quite haunting despite the seeming victory of the protagonist.