Disastrous Copy-layout of the English Translation
Review of the Dalkey Archive Press paperback (2020) of the Estonian language original "Gogoli disko" (2015)

No rating for this edition due to the climactic chapters 28 & 29 being left mostly blank on the missing pages 166 to 171. I will revisit if a new printing is issued. My english language review of the original Estonian edition is here.

Trivia and Link
The book's appendix provides a transliteration of the lyrics to the Russian thieves' song Мурка (Murka) without the original Russian or an English translation. What is the use of that except for a non-speaker to attempt a singalong?
Anyway, here is the original Russian of the lyrics they provide (Which are not exactly the same as other sources):

Прибыла в Одессу банда из Амура,
В банде были урки, шулера.
Банда занималась тёмными делами,
И за ней следило Губчека!
Верх держала баба, звали её Мурка,
Хитрая и смелая была.
Даже злые урки — и те боялись Мурки,
Воровскую жизнь она вела.
Vot poshlí provály, nachalís’ obvály.
Ведь пошли провалы, начались облавы,
Много стало наших пропадать.
Как узнать скорее, кто же стал шалявым,
Чтобы за измену покарать?
Раз пошли на дело, выпить захотелось,
Мы зашли в шикарный ресторан.
Там сидела Мурка в кожаной тужурке,
А из-под полы торчал наган.
Здравствуй, моя Мурка, Здравствуй дорогая,
Разве я тебя не одевал?
Кольца и браслеты, юбки и жакеты
Разве ж я тебе не добывал?
Здравствуй, моя Мурка, Здравствуй дорогая,
Здравствуй, моя Мурка и прощай!
Ты зашухерила всю нашу малину,
А теперь маслину получай!

And here is a Google-assisted English translation. Sorry, I have no idea how to explain the raspberries/olives ending. In the context, raspberries must mean the gang lost their riches due to Murka's betrayal, and for that she gets the olive, which must be a euphemism for a bullet.

There arrived in Odessa, a gang from the Amur River,
The gang were thieves, tricksters.
The gang was engaged in dark deeds,
And it is being followed by the Gubcheka*.
The leader was a woman, her name was Murka,
Cunning and brave she was.
Even evil thieves - they were afraid of Murka,
A thieving life she led.
After all, there were failures, round-ups began,
Many of our gang began to disappear.
How to find out quickly who is the traitor,
Who to punish for treason?
Once we went to work, I wanted to drink,
We went to a fancy restaurant.
Murka sat there in a leather jacket,
From which a revolver was sticking out.
Hello my Murka, Hello dear,
Didn't I dress you?
Rings and bracelets, skirts and jackets
Didn't I mine for you?
Hello my Murka, Hello dear,
Hello my Murka and goodbye!
You screwed up all our raspberries
Now you get the olive!

*Губчека (Gubcheka) is an acronym of Губернской чрезвычайной комиссии по борьбе с контрреволюцией и саботажем) (Governor's Emergency Commission for Counter-Revolution and Sabotage) i.e. a secret police organization.

A surrealistic dystopian parody of cult worship, religion and authoritarianism.

The Estonian language book description translates as "In Paavo Matsin's novel "Gogol's Disco", the action takes place in a future Viljandi, Estonia, which is again ruled by a Tsarist regime, the Metro rides and the golden onion-domes of the orthodox churches glisten. The neo-Slav-like daily life of its colourful and. at times, criminal characters is disrupted by Russia's classic literary giant Nikolai Gogol, who has awakened from the dead."

That is a good introduction but it barely scratches the surface of Matsin's imaginary vision which follows an assortment of characters from the pickpocket Konstantin Opiatovitš who first discovers "Gogol" after robbing him on a morning tram ride through to the Final Four who become the "Gogol" evangelists, even while the Tsarist secret police are trying to suppress the movement by locking them away in asylums.

I'm using "Gogol" in quote marks as you have to decide for yourself whether the character is the actual reanimated Russian literary figure or is just a vagabond who is the beneficiary of mistaken identity. You will easily spot allusions to Christ and his disciples (as well as to Mary Magdelene) and will probably be reminded of the reactions to Chance in Jerzy Kosiński's "Being There."

On a single read-through, I am probably missing dozens of references as Matsin's text is constantly making use of Estonian & Russian language puns and jokes as it rolls along in its gonzofied journey. For example the character named Loenhard Kevad doesn't have a typo for the more conventional Leonhard in his first name, the syllable "loen" means "read" in Estonian. So the name alludes to Reading Hard). In one chapter the Estonian word for music & any of its extensions, usually spelt as "muusika" is constantly misspelled as "musika". "Musi" is Estonian for "kiss." Those are just the 2 examples that I can easily explain.

If you are prepared to make the journey with Matsin and are open to satirical parodies and are not too easily offended there is a lot of fun to be had here. I'm looking forward to a re-reading and to a hoped-for future English translation. As the book won a European Union Prize for Literature in 2016 there is a good chance of that. Meelis Friedenthal's "Mesilased", which won in 2013, was recently published in English as "The Willow King" in 2017.

Reader's Tips
If 3-word Russian names with diminutive nicknames are as confusing to you as they are to me, then Matsin's mostly invented names (e.g. Adolf Israilovitš Gukš aka Gukš, Arkadi Dmitrijevitš Severnõi aka Arkaša) will probably be even more so. Classic literature usually provided a List of Characters to help readers, so you might consider creating your own as you read.

Trivia & Links
In his video introduction to the book Matsin states that the reason he chose Gogol for his apparition was that when he was growing up he saw a film of Gogol's early horror story [book:The Viy|23824710] which shook him up and he wanted to pay homage to that. Presumably the film that he saw was Viy, a Russian-language version from 1967.

I read "Gogoli disko" in the original Estonian. There are no international editions yet in print although several have been contracted for as of early 2017. You can watch for updates on future editions at http://www.estlit.ee/elis/?cmd=book&id=64533
The Estonian Literature Centre webpage includes the chapter "Cutlets for Gogol" (it is Chapter 21 of the 29 unnumbered chapters) translated into English by Adam Cullen. ( )