- Paperback: 128 pages
- Publisher: New Directions (Sep 27 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0811214915
- ISBN-13: 978-0811214919
- Product Dimensions: 18.6 x 11.6 x 0.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 113 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#888,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #77 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Slavic
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Young Russian author Pelevin (Omon Ra; The Yellow Arrow) demonstrates that Generation X is more of a post-Soviet Russian phenomenon than anything experienced by the youth of Western democracies. In this quartet of phantasmagorical short stories (originally published in Russian in 1994), the author drives home the creeping anxiety of a long-suffering nation awakened from a century of numbing repression, only to find the new reality is hardly an improvement. In his first story, a refugee named Six-Toes, cut off from his original "community," staggers around in a kind of mute despair, vainly awaiting some transformative nova called "The Decisive Stage." In the eerie allegory "The Life and Adventures of Shed Number XII," a disembodied life force trapped within a utility shed struggles against the shackles of surrounding utilitarian objects (despite its bizarre metaphors, this story demonstrates the author's uncanny ability to project a literary Slavic gloom onto the most ordinary stage-settings). Pelevin pulls no punches with the metaphor woven into "Vera Pavlovna's Ninth Dream," in which a public toilet attendant finds her world transformed into a giddy commercial paradise, only to have a fountain of sewage plunge that world into a kind of septic Tartarus. "Tai Shou Chuan USSR" provides a sort of resigned look at Russian and Chinese Communist bureaucracy and the foul brew of propaganda, deception and corruption that they've showered on their citizenry. Pelevin's allegories are reminiscent of children's fairy tales in their fantastic depictions of worlds within worlds, solitary souls tossed helplessly among them. But the dark undercurrent the saga of a people lost between a doomed ideology and its floundering replacement is anything but simple.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
The New York Times
The literary voice of the post-Soviet generation.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
"What of it?" "That never happens in the center of the world. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
"What of it?" "That never happens in the center of the world. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A major disappointment ... the usual high quality Pelevin,
By
This review is from: New Directions Bibelot 4 By Pelevin (Paperback)
Why disappointing? Because when I ordered it, I expected new stories rather than reprints from The Blue Lantern (see it for a review of the stories). However, if you've never read Pelevin, this is a small collection to get you started. The mystical chickens Hermit and Six-Toes are unforgettable. A commune from the perspective of a shed, the transformation of public bathrooms to trinket store ... Pelevin provides a funny and deep insight into human nature, especially the Russian variety.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews) 11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A major disappointment ... the usual high quality Pelevin,
By M. J. Smith - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: New Directions Bibelot 4 By Pelevin (Paperback)
Why disappointing? Because when I ordered it, I expected new stories rather than reprints from The Blue Lantern (see it for a review of the stories). However, if you've never read Pelevin, this is a small collection to get you started. The mystical chickens Hermit and Six-Toes are unforgettable. A commune from the perspective of a shed, the transformation of public bathrooms to trinket store ... Pelevin provides a funny and deep insight into human nature, especially the Russian variety.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Four fiercely imaginative stories,
By TChris - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: New Directions Bibelot 4 By Pelevin (Paperback)
The four stories in this short collection are perceptive, fiercely imaginative, and wildly funny. My favorite, "The Life and Adventures of Shed Number XII," is told from the viewpoint of a storage shed that dreams of being the bicycle it stores, then loses the dream when a barrel of cucumbers replaces the bicycle, before finally recapturing its memory of the freedom it yearns to achieve. Similarly, "Hermit and Six Toes" concerns two chickens who want something better than the fate that awaits them on a production line. While those two allegorical tales stand out, I also enjoyed the two stories about people, particularly the story of a woman whose job as a men's room attendant is transformed by perestroika when the men's room becomes a shopping outlet--albeit one that retains its memory of sewage. That story and the final one (a satirical look at leadership in the USSR) would probably be even more enjoyable for those who have a more intimate knowledge of recent Russian history. That sort of background isn't necessary, however, to appreciate Pelevin's unique vision. Any fan of strong, inventive writing infused with sharp humor should enjoy this collection.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pelevin, Reincarnated Daniil Kharms,
By Pavel Somov, Ph.D., author of "Lotus Eff... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: New Directions Bibelot 4 By Pelevin (Paperback)
These four quick stories give an instant feel for Pelevin: the absurd, the metaphysical, post-Soviet cultural realities, existential searching, intermittently subtle and grotesque humor, and scattered camouflaged Buddhist metaphors. Pelevin is a reincarnated Daniil Kharms!
Pavel Somov, Ph.D. [...] |
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Criticism & Theory
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Short Stories > Anthologies
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Short Stories > British
- Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Eastern European
- Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Slavic
- Books > Nonfiction > Education > Language Instruction
- Books > Reference > Foreign Languages
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
