Let's Put the Future Behind Us
Let's Put the Future Behind Us is a speculative fiction novel by Jack Womack set in post-Soviet Russia and released in 1996. It chronicles the transition of bureaucratic apparatchiks into an endemically corrupt Russian quasi-capitalism in the early 1990s dominated by oligarchs, criminals and ultra-nationalist political groups.
 First edition | |
| Author | Jack Womack |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Speculative fiction novel |
| Publisher | Atlantic Monthly Press |
Publication date | April 1996 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 310 pp |
| ISBN | 978-0-87113-627-5 |
| OCLC | 33281869 |
| 813/.54 20 | |
| LC Class | PS3573.O575 L48 1996 |
The novel arose when Womack's friend and fellow author William Gibson had been collaborating on a screenplay with Kazakh director Rashid Nugmanov after an American producer had expressed an interest in a Soviet-American collaboration to star Russian-Korean singer Viktor Tsoi.[1] Despite being occupied with writing a novel, Gibson was reluctant to abandon the "wonderfully odd project" which involved "ritualistic gang-warfare in some sort of sideways-future Leningrad" and sent Womack to Russia in his stead for a week in March 1992, immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union.[2][3] Rather than producing a motion picture, a prospect which Tsoi's death in an automotive accident put paid to, Womack's experiences in Russia ultimately culminated in the novel,[1] which he began writing in 1994 and finished in September 1995.[2]
The novel has been hailed by Charlie Stross as a "brilliant and vitriolically funny apocalypse geek novel about life in Russia",[4] while Wired commended its "brilliant aperçus and well-aimed jokes",[5] calling the novel "the best Russian gangster thriller ever written by a guy who's not Russian",[6] and Entertainment Weekly rated it a B+.[7]
References
- Gibson, William (2003-03-06). "Victor Tsoi". Archived from the original on 2007-12-10. Retrieved 2007-12-03.
- Jack Womack OmniVisions Interview, conducted 1996-10-10.
- Jack Womack: Going, Going, Gone, interview with Cory Doctorow, The WELL, 2001-08-01
- Charlie's Diary:Let's Put the Future Behind Us, Charles Stross, 2006-10-20
- The Future Ain't What It Used To Be, Wired Issue 3.01, January 1997
- The Future of Nostalgia, Wired.com, 2005-08-12
- Let's Put the Future Behind Us Book Capsule Review, Entertainment Weekly, 1996-06-07
Publication details
- Womack, Jack (1996). Let's Put the Future behind Us. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 978-0-87113-627-5.