Slow to start the plot, this novel is occasionally confusing, and probably 100 pages too long. The post apocalyptic tableau is misleading; this is an overwrought Russian fable. It's best classified in the post-modernist, semi-fabulist genre. I suspect some of its appeal was lost in translation, but I also suspect the Translator may have saved the book by her superb rendering of Russian colloquialisms into English. The ending is a disappointment.There are some redeeming qualities. Several laugh out loud moments of Russian humor and irony. I liked the novel plot device of "Olden-Timers" who survived "The Blast", were mutated and apparently immortalized. The descriptions of "golubchiks" muddling through winter hardship were simultaneously comical and horrendous.Other NYRB books I have read have been outstanding. This book was mediocre.