Cecil the Lion Had to Die

 

Cecil the Lion Had to Die / Olena Stiazhkina
trans. from Russian and Ukrainian by Dominique Hoffman
Cambridge, MA: HURI, c2024.
200 p.

This is an interesting book for many reasons; one of them is that the author wrote part of it in Russian and part of it in Ukrainian. The original Russian is printed on black paper; the Ukrainian on white. There are phrases from both interspersed in the opposite sections, and those small bits follow this pattern as well. Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute has published both her diary (reviewed here) and this novel, which she wrote as she was moving toward a switch to using Ukrainian after the Russian invasion. 

Aside from that, this was a read that I enjoyed due to its stylistic flourishes, structural concepts and large cast of characters. It follows a "made family" formed in 1986 when four women give birth and a local functionary bribes them into naming one of the children at least after German Communist leader Ernst Thälmann -- the result is a boy called Ernest and a girl called Thelma. And two others, Alyosha and Halyuska. Their parents are the last Soviet generation; these children are destined to be the first post-Soviet one. 

The book has a fragmentary style; each of the characters is followed from the 1986 through the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, into the calmer 2000s and then into the aftermath of 2014 as Russians invade the Donbas region. Each character takes a different trajectory; this shows the variety of individual response to this political and existential upheaval. The younger generations change their names and language to Ukrainian, some enlist, some move; the older generation makes other choices. This many characters across so many years means that we're only seeing snapshots, key moments of interior life or significant change are highlighted. The chapter headings give us a name and a date; the reader has to double check these, as well as the diagrams at the beginning, to keep everyone straight. But it is worth it. 

While the structure and lack of straightforward linear narrative can limit the connection to a character, Stiazhkina finds a way to create emotional depth, and I was getting attached to a number of the characters. The conclusion was powerful, one of those endings that sticks with you. I thought this was a fantastic literary novel, both in topic and style, and highly recommend it. It works especially well alongside Stiazhkina's diary of her experiences in Donetsk, but doesn't require the factual companion. It's a resonant novel that should be on all lists today.  

(For more on this book, I also recommend this review by a respected book critic who reads and writes in both English and Ukrainian as well as Russian.)