Yellow Arrow [Hardcover]

Apart from the translated Buddhist metaphor, the writing is excellently light and alive.

"The Yellow Arrow" of the title is "a train traveling towards a ruined bridge." It is a train, however, that appears to have no beginning and no end. It is a train that makes no stops. From this simple premise, Pelevin elaborates a sometimes absurd, sometimes mystical, parable of life in Russian society. Or is it life in general? Either way, the narrative works on many levels and provides an entertaining and, for those who like, metaphysically speculative foray into where we're all headed.

"The Yellow Arrow" is essentially the story of one passenger-Andrei's-life on the train. Told in the third person, the reader lives inside the mind of Andre, thinking what he thinks, seeing what he sees, experiencing what he experiences. Andrei becomes the protagonist for open-ended speculation about the meaning of life on the train. Thus, early in the narrative, Andrei sits in the restaurant car of the train and speculates (in a passage that is typical Pelevin and that provides a resonant connection to the meaning of "The Yellow Express"):

"Watching the hot sunlight falling on the table-cloth covered with sticky blotches and crumbs, Andrei was suddenly struck by the thought of what a genuine tragedy it was for millions of light rays to set out on their journey from the surface of the sun, go hurtling through the infinite void of space and pierce the mile-thick sky of Earth, only to be extinguished in the revolting remains of yesterday's soup. Maybe these yellow arrows slanting in through the window were conscious, hoped for something better-and realized that their hopes were groundless, giving them all the necessary ingredients for suffering."

The train becomes a deep-seated metaphor for lives in society, for those who live those lives with unquestioning acceptance and for those who don't-those who wonder about the train and about whether there is anything else, anything outside the train. Thus, Andrei's friend, Khan, draws a distinction between those like him and Andrei, who reflect and question where they are and what they're doing, and those who do not: "A normal passenger never thinks of himself as a passenger. So if you know you're a passenger, you no longer are one. They could never imagine it's impossible to get off this train. Nothing else exists for them, apart from the train."

But whether or not anything exists outside the train, whether you can get off the train, is less important than what is in your head. As Khan suggests to Andrei, "It doesn't matter in the least whether anything else exists apart from our train. What matters is that we can live as though there is something else. As though it really is possible to get off. That's the only difference. But if you try to explain that difference to any of the passengers, they won't understand."

I hope this gives a flavor for Pelevin's writing and for the tone of "The Yellow Express." While a short work, Pelevin succeeds in creating a compelling and satirically amusing metaphorical world, a world that provides sublime insight into what it means to think and to question in a society that encourages unquestioning acceptance. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

"The Yellow Arrow" of the title is "a train traveling towards a ruined bridge." It is a train, however, that appears to have no beginning and no end. It is a train that makes no stops. From this simple premise, Pelevin elaborates a sometimes absurd, sometimes mystical, parable of life in Russian society. Or is it life in general? Either way, the narrative works on many levels and provides an entertaining and, for those who like, metaphysically speculative foray into where we're all headed.

"The Yellow Arrow" is essentially the story of one passenger-Andrei's-life on the train. Told in the third person, the reader lives inside the mind of Andre, thinking what he thinks, seeing what he sees, experiencing what he experiences. Andrei becomes the protagonist for open-ended speculation about the meaning of life on the train. Thus, early in the narrative, Andrei sits in the restaurant car of the train and speculates (in a passage that is typical Pelevin and that provides a resonant connection to the meaning of "The Yellow Express"):

"Watching the hot sunlight falling on the table-cloth covered with sticky blotches and crumbs, Andrei was suddenly struck by the thought of what a genuine tragedy it was for millions of light rays to set out on their journey from the surface of the sun, go hurtling through the infinite void of space and pierce the mile-thick sky of Earth, only to be extinguished in the revolting remains of yesterday's soup. Maybe these yellow arrows slanting in through the window were conscious, hoped for something better-and realized that their hopes were groundless, giving them all the necessary ingredients for suffering."

The train becomes a deep-seated metaphor for lives in society, for those who live those lives with unquestioning acceptance and for those who don't-those who wonder about the train and about whether there is anything else, anything outside the train. Thus, Andrei's friend, Khan, draws a distinction between those like him and Andrei, who reflect and question where they are and what they're doing, and those who do not: "A normal passenger never thinks of himself as a passenger. So if you know you're a passenger, you no longer are one. They could never imagine it's impossible to get off this train. Nothing else exists for them, apart from the train."

But whether or not anything exists outside the train, whether you can get off the train, is less important than what is in your head. As Khan suggests to Andrei, "It doesn't matter in the least whether anything else exists apart from our train. What matters is that we can live as though there is something else. As though it really is possible to get off. That's the only difference. But if you try to explain that difference to any of the passengers, they won't understand."

I hope this gives a flavor for Pelevin's writing and for the tone of "The Yellow Express." While a short work, Pelevin succeeds in creating a compelling and satirically amusing metaphorical world, a world that provides sublime insight into what it means to think and to question in a society that encourages unquestioning acceptance.