4 by Pelevin [Paperback]

Victor Pelevin (Author), Andrew Bromfield (Translator) (Author)

Editorial Reviews

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.

Review

A psychedelic Nabokov for the cyber age.... The brightest star of the post-Soviet generation. -- Time

Is the dark-comic fabulist Victor Pelevin Joseph Heller's heir? He, along with various critics, thinks so. -- The New Yorker

Pelevin's raw, bold voice makes a welcome addition to the literature of a soul-searching Russia. -- Publishers Weekly

The literary voice of the post-Soviet generation. -- The New York Times

[A] writer whose imagination dances on the heads of the rustiest pins in history, while maintaining a likeably zany manner. -- The San Francisco Bay Guardian

[B]eautifully showcases Pelevin's adept sense of imagery, metaphor, allegory, and absurdity. -- The Education Digest, Tom Bowden, January 2002

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Product Details

• Paperback: 101 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811214915
• ISBN-13: 978-0811214919
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #421,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful 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, March 14, 2002

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 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, October 4, 2010

By 

TChris (Tzer Island) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 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, July 16, 2009

By 

Pavel Somov, Ph.D., author of "Lotus Eff... - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: 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.
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