The Gnome King reviewed SCHLOCK Featuring Russia Cop by David R Low
Review of 'SCHLOCK Featuring Russia Cop' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
If there is one thing I like doing it is picking up a book with no idea what it is about, jumping in and absolutely loving it. Last year I read Low’s first book CoinciDATE and really enjoyed it so I had high expectations for this one. The cover is pretty impressive, at first glance it looks plain but when you look deeper you can see all sorts of shapes and things going on in the graffiti. It turns out this is a collection of 4 stories all focused on trying to understand the Russian Soul and what a cracking bunch of stories they are.
First up there is a group of friends who travel to Russia to try and find fellow fans of Viktor Tsoi a Russian Rock star from the past. A great bunch of characters and an interesting way to review a band, Viktor Tsoi is real …
If there is one thing I like doing it is picking up a book with no idea what it is about, jumping in and absolutely loving it. Last year I read Low’s first book CoinciDATE and really enjoyed it so I had high expectations for this one. The cover is pretty impressive, at first glance it looks plain but when you look deeper you can see all sorts of shapes and things going on in the graffiti. It turns out this is a collection of 4 stories all focused on trying to understand the Russian Soul and what a cracking bunch of stories they are.
First up there is a group of friends who travel to Russia to try and find fellow fans of Viktor Tsoi a Russian Rock star from the past. A great bunch of characters and an interesting way to review a band, Viktor Tsoi is real so you can use the google machine to find their music videos and maybe go on your own pilgrimage to Russia. Next is my favourite, a teacher with a handful of students interested in spending a years learning in Russia, when he doesn’t get a satisfactory answer to his question “What is Russian Soul?” he tells them a story, a fantastic series of events that had me chuckling and with an ending that was spot on. Next is the most absurd point of the book a documentary script about an inventor who has created the ultimate cop brimming with this Russian Soul, I laughed big time here…that is until I realised this was absurd enough to be true….could this be a Putin biography? Finally the last story is short, it features a couple of characters from a previous story and what starts as a bit more fun turns into a rather tragic event, it really makes you think about identity and left me wondering is this last story the moment that Russian Soul is understood?
This was great fun, I’ve found a new band to explore and I’ve had loads of laughs. You can really tell that Low has had fun writing this, especially in story no.3 where he is seeing how far he can push the absurdity or Russia Cop. Give this book a go, it deserves to get some recognition.
Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2022/05/08/schlock-featuring-russia-cop-by-david-r-low/