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Vilnius Poker Hardcover – January 15, 2009

by Ricardas Gavelis (Author), Elizabeth Novickas (Translator)

4.2 30 ratings

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Detailing a man's mental breakdown—and his obsession with a seductress named Lolita, the omnipresent "them," and the need to uncover what's "really going on"—Vilnius Poker is an epic, paranoid novel about the surreal absurdities and horrors of life under Soviet rule. In the words of Kirkus Reviews, "think of it as The Matrix behind the Iron Curtain—unsettling and profoundly interesting."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An assemblage of troubled grotesques struggle to retain identity and humanity in an alternately menacing and mysterious Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, under Soviet rule in the 1970s and 1980s. The late Gavelis's first translation into English centers on Vytautas Vargalys, a semijustifiably paranoid labor camp survivor who works at a library no one visits while he desperately investigates the Them or They responsible for dehumanizing and killing the humans around him, including his wife, Irena; his genius friend, Gedis; and the young siren, Lolita. Meanwhile, failed intellectual Martynas chronicles Vargalys's struggle and the city's mysterious energy in his mlog, library worker Stefanija Monkeviciute dwells on her wavering faith and personal humiliations, and the city itself speaks in the voice of a dog, claiming that Vilnius can't distinguish dreams from reality. Wrought—and fraught—with symbolism and ennui, the oppressive internal monologues of the characters and the city show the intense importance and equal absurdity of life. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Ricardas Gavelis was a prose writer, playwright, and journalist. His novels include Seven Ways to Commit Suicide, The Last Generation of Men on Earth, and The Life of Sun-Tzu in the Sacred City of Vilnius.

Elizabeth Novickas graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago with a M.A. in Lithuanian Language and Literature. She has worked previously as a bookbinder, newspaper designer, cartographer, and computer system administrator.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Letter (January 15, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 498 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1934824054
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1934824054
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.6 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1.5 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,461,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #40,255 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #127,735 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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Tom Keoughan

Vilnius Poker

Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2016

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Vytautas Vargalys has lead an incredibly difficult life. Raised in Vilnius by an alcoholic father and a depressed and withdrawn mother, he fled to the woods and fought with the underground when the Russians arrived. After capture, he was sent to a Siberian prison camp where he was tortured from his late teens and throughout his twenties. Finally released, he returned to Vilnius and spent the next decade as a raging homeless alcoholic. Rescued by a woman who would become his wife, Vytautas Vargalys has it together now. Married, with a steady job as a Manager in the town’s library. Things are finally going well, but Vytautas in increasingly dissociated from reality. He covers it well but he never knows which is real and which is fantasy. It’s all real to him.

Ricardas Gavelis has written a brilliant book which outlines a highly intelligent man’s (and an occupied city’s) descent into hopelessness and madness. As Vytautas spirals into insanity at an ever increasing rate, he never stops seeing truth on many different levels.

2 people found this helpful

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Fred Cheyunski

Discerning and Trying to Dodge Dominance

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2023

My sister was kind enough to gift me with “Vilnius Poker” given our Lithuanian heritage and her familiarity with my interest in literature. Wondering what the book would be like, I became enthralled trying to figure out what had actually happened regarding the main character and those most closely associated with him-----and their dominance by the infamous “THEY” (much as the protagonist is trying to unravel his circumstances and not unlike I was plumbing the dimensions of Brighton Beach Brooklyn some years ago).

The book is comprised of Four Parts: (1) THEY - Vytautas Vargalys, October 8th 197…. , (2) FROM THE MLOG – Martynas Poška, October 14th-29th, 197… , (3) TUTEISA - Miss Stefanija Monkevičiūte, October 30, 197… , and (4) VOX CANINA. There are also brief sections providing information About the Author, About the Translator and Open Letter (the publisher). Part One makes up about 60% of the text and is Vytautas account of his experience and background, Soviet occupied Vilnius, his parents/family home and growing up, time in the Lithuanian resistance and a Siberian prison camp, his return, and completion of programmer education. It goes back and forth with his activities as leader of the Library computerization team and ensuing events. The narrative discusses the City, associates, friends, and love interests including Gediminas, Martynas, Teodoras, Irena, Stefanjia and Lolita, as Vytautas quests to understand his situation. Each of the other four parts covers similar people, places and occurrences from the perspective of one of the other main characters. Taking the four parts together helps reveal the “hands dealt.”

Aspects that stood out for me included those that situated the novel historically as well as its relevance to today. For example, at one point (Location 3032) Vytautas indicates “. . . Stalin’s ultimatum to Lithuania is a classic example of Their pathologic: either Lithuania will let the Soviet Army divisions in to guard the Soviet Army divisions that are already in Lithuania, or the Soviet Army divisions will march into Lithuania without Lithuania’s compliance” which sounds like Russian Leader Putin’s current invasion of Ukraine. As he relates more specifically later {Location 5239) Several million Ukrainians, starved to death by Stalin. So it turns out Ukrainians also know something they shouldn’t? And what do the Crimean Tatars have to do with it? Questions without answers.” Such passages bring to mind Kissinger’s commentary on Russia in his book “World Order” and the ramifications of current events (see my review).

There is also so much to sort through and tease out of the text it can be overwhelming in various ways. For instance, it relates the state of mind of the respective characters, the personality and traits of Vilnius and Lithuania, along with numerous literary allusions. In once instance, Martynas relates (Location 7160-64) that “More and more, I am beginning to believe that some metaphysical secret—some [epiphany] lies hidden in libraries. . . . [Vytautas] and Lolita liked to walk through Old Town. To them, those few blocks substituted for all of Vilnius. . . .They walked through Vilnius as if through a library. You could put it this way. The houses and side streets of Old Town are yellowed manuscripts, full of wisdom and undeciphered mysteries. The new districts are identical, faceless political brochures or ROF [Ruling Old Folks ]leaders’ speeches that differ only in their title, and they’re as short-lived as the block construction buildings of Vilnius.” These kinds of paragraphs lead me to recall such works as Weiner’s “Socrates Express,” Chan and Salaba’s “Cataloging and Classification: An Introduction,” and Eric McLuhan’s “Cynic Satire” which mentions Nabokov’s “Lolita” (see my reviews). Also, the attention to smells and other sensations had me thinking of Yong’s “Immense World”; episodes of sex and violence (treated in a discerning manner) summoned up for me comparisons with works such as Saunders’ “Tenth of December” (see my reviews).

Even with these traits, I would recommend Gravelis’ book for those with similar heritage, literary interests as well as for reminders of what those in Ukraine are seeking to avoid in Russian domination and instead pursue such artistry. As he has Vytautas put the matter (Location 4637-4638) “I had fingered and felt the . . . octopus of Vilnius . . . but I wasn’t able to grasp its meaning. I saw what They did, I saw the dreadful effects of Their work, but I still couldn’t grasp what all of this was for.” Then later comes his character’s realization (Location 4646) that “. . . my own meaning was enough for me. Even if the world itself sought destruction, I was obliged to prevent it. I know this for sure: as long as at least one person thinks this way, everything is not yet lost.” Read “Vilnius Poker” and hope for the best.

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Clark Hulse

A Masterpiece of anti-Soviet Literature

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2015

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Vilnius Poker is the major novel from the period of Soviet domination in Lithuania, and an important work of late 20th century European fiction. The novel was shocking when it came out, given its graphic sexual violence, but it is no more graphic than Alban Berg's opera Lulu from the 1930's, or William Burroughs' Naked Lunch. or Norman Mailer's American Dream. So the sexual violence needs to be seen against the prim background of official Soviet literature. The novel brilliantly weaves among four narrators, depicting a city and a society suffering from psychological and physical oppression. Gavelis finished his masterwork just before the collapse of the socialist regimes in East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. And just two years after that--25 years ago--the people of Vilnius faced down Russian tanks and brought the Soviet Union to its knees.

2 people found this helpful

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J. Gundy

A wild, dark, beautiful book

Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2015

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What a ride! This book reminded me a little of Milan Kundera's novels about life under the shadow of the Soviets, but Gavelis's Vilnius is a city like no other. Mercifully, the occupation ended not long after this book was written, but it remains as a brilliant testament to the survival of the human spirit under the most crushing oppression. Gavelis deserves to be much better known and more widely read.

3 people found this helpful

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Pal

odd but likable story

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2017

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Quite entertaining.

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