ABSTRACT
Oksana Robski’s first novel, Casual, published by Rosman Press (which later published all her other novels), appeared in 2005. It quickly achieved formidable success as a representation of the private lives of the post-Soviet elite residing in the glamorous Moscow suburbs Rublevka and Zhukovka. To date, this is the only novel by Robksi translated into English (2007). Robski built on its success with further volumes such as Pro liuboff/on [About Love off/on] (2005), Den’ schast’ia – zavtra [The Day of Happiness Is Tomorrow] (2006), Ustritsy pod dozhdem [Oysters Under the Rain] (2007), a collection of short stories, Zhizn’ zanovo [Life Anew] (2006), an ironic handbook, Zamuzh za millionera [Marry a Millionaire] (2007), in co-authorship with Kseniia Sobchak (for further information on Sobchak see Introduction), and a sequel to her first novel, Casual 2 (2007). Franchising the success of her glamour fiction, Robski published two manuals for glam wannabes, entitled Rublevskaia kukhnia [Rublevka Cuisine] (2007) and Glamurnyi dom [The Glamorous House] (2007). (The last two books are published by the Moscow-based OLMA-Press.) With all her books highly publicized in Russian glossy magazines and on television as an insider’s look at the lifestyles of the nouveau riche, Robski became a symbol of the new consumerist culture of the 2000s.1 Gaily accepting the comparison of her writing style to that of a talking purse from Chanel, Robski presents a gendered view of the nouveau riche’s lifestyle, focusing on the lives and problems of the women in the elitist settlement, mostly the wives and mistresses of Russian businessmen and politicians. Mediocre in their literary qualities, Robski’s novels nevertheless constitute an illuminating case of the functioning of glamour culture, in which happiness, as manifested by “status” and “success,” is not the result of certain achievements, but their very foundation. Although in most cases the characters are already “made” in money and status, the origins of their privilege are never quite clear.
