Customer Reviews

Babylon

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I thought Omon Ra was a lot of fun though it cleaved a little close to something like a formula for absurdist literature, where the unravelling of a seemingly credible and innocuous frame of narrative progresses with acceleration to all out rational oblivion...I couldn't make it through Life of Insects. The short stories I love though, the one about the Shed, the chickens, the 9th Dream of Vera Pavlanova is a masterpiece, to me. In Babylon V. Pelevin captures some of the duende that drew me to his short stories. A brilliant mix up of major themes and tones that holds together despite disparity, funny as hell, less rock and roll than Omon Ra but more drugs. Really incredible achievement in that he philosophizes pertinently without being too heavy handed, by employing techniques which take the lead out of heavy statements. Several typos and a handful of mis-translations but all in all the translation is readable and flows well.