viktor pelevin

lazybones

lazybones

f, d , d+f , p.
has anyone got any views on this chap? read helmet of horror recentley , was very good and confusing in equal measures, been described as a mix of p.k dick,bulgakov,auster and kafka... sorta agree with that!

just ordered babylon and the clay machinegun...


its all very dense, metaphysical business with lots of dada-ist/surrealist non diegetic oddness. [or is it?];) :confused:
 
STN

STN

sou'wester
Omon Ra is a weird masterpiece, I think.

I haven't read any of the rest of his stuff, but I remember reading the blurbs a while back (before HoH came out) and thinking a lot of the premises looked a bit silly. Interested that you liked Helmet of Horror - nearly bought that the other day. Maybe I should give it a go. I'd also be interested to know what you make of the other books you've ordered.
 
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gek-opel

entered apprentice
Clay Machine Gun by far his best, remember absolutely loving it at the time. Babylon is silly, but not bad. Any thoughts on "Life Of Insects"?
 
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lazybones

lazybones

f, d , d+f , p.
ah well i can expect a good read then! [clay machingun]


stn, i would definitely rec helmet of horror, it was quite amusing/funny at times which nicely balanced out the sometimes overbearingly obtuse plot/narration... if you would excuse a terribly hackneyed phrase in regards to literature commentary, it was very atmospheric tale too... i found a suitably baffling interview with him here;

http://www.bombmagazine.com/pelevin/pelevin2.html

i just ordered a book of short stories by him too, a bit of a pelevin marathon in order then !


also just read the penguin novels by andrey kurkov , it was quite enjoyable, nicely written too but in terms of plot didn't move along too much and i wasn't sure if he was trying to do a straightforward thriller/noir-ish type thing or a character study exactly... not sure i'll return to it anytime soon but worth a read if its in the library... in comparison to pelevin its a bit "lite" i guess.


will report what i make of it all soonish.



ps whilst we are on the subject of surreal/obtuse/generally quite interesting russian lit, has anyone read Moscow Stations by Venedikt Erofeev? heard its really quite good...
 
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gek-opel

entered apprentice
Ive read most of Pelevin's stuff, except the "helmet of horror", sitting at the bottom of a pile of books to be read... He's massive in Russia, allegedly.
 
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DigitalDjigit

Honky Tonk Woman
I really like "Generation P" (I guess it's Babylon in translation), really liked the Babylonian stuff in it. I was reading "Snowcrash" around the same time and it fit. "Chapaev and Emptyness" (Clay Finger Machinegun I am assuming) is very similar. "Omon Ra" I didn't like so much. He has great short stories.

Sometimes it seems like a pastiche. Throwing around words like "emptyness" but without any meaning behind them. And sometimes it feels like a parade of situations setup mainly for their cleverness.

What I would like to know is how the translation was done in "Clayfinger Machine Gun" in this one bit which stuck in my memory. It's where the protagonist is meeting with the Japanese business men and they ask him to describe a picture depicting a samurai with weights around his neck. The protagonist mumbles a vague reply in Russian that happens to be the allegorical meaning behind the painting when interpreted as Japanese (this is what I am talking about, it's very contrived even though it's funny).
 
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