Death and the Penguin (Panther) [Paperback]

Andrey Kurkov (Author)

Book Description

Series: Panther | Publication Date: May 29, 2003

Victor is depressed: his lover has dumped him, his short stories are too short, and the light has gone off in his dingy apartment. His only companion is Misha, the penguin he rescued from Kiev's Zoo, when it couldn't feed the animals anymore. Misha is the silent witness to Victor's despair, and joins in his celebration—fish and vodka—when Victor's luck seems to turn: he is commissioned to write obituaries. The weird thing is that the editor wants him to select subjects who are still alive, the movers and the shakers of the new, post-Communist society.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

"To every time, its own normality." As if to test the limits of his own premise, Ukrainian writer Viktor and his pet penguin, Misha, find themselves in a situation so bizarre as to challenge the very idea of normality. When Viktor is hired to write obituaries of Kiev VIPs to be kept on file, it seems like a great gig. Then the VIPs start to die with a regularity suggesting that Viktor has been signing death warrants, not writing obituaries. From there it's only a short step to Viktor's realization that someone is writing his obituary. As with Daniel Pennac's series about the Mallaussene family (see review on p.2089), Kurkov's novel exists in an all-encompassing vacuum that, like a kind of narrative narcotic, insinuates itself into the reader's pores until, yes, what was once surreal has achieved its own normality. Viktor and Misha, in the grip of circumstances beyond their control, are like us in ways we would never have dreamed possible, and Kurkov, we realize with a bit of a shock, is a strangely entrancing writer. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"A striking portrait of post-Soviet isolation . . . In this bleak moral landscape Kurkov manages to find ample refuge for his dark humor."  —New York Times

"Wistful but (thankfully) not whimsical. Funny, alarming, and, in a Slavic way, not unlike early Pinter."  —Kirkus Reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: Random House UK (May 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860469450
• ISBN-13: 978-1860469459
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.4 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #757,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dry and quirky, but a pleasure, December 13, 2001

By 

David J. Loftus (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Death and the Penguin (Paperback)

It's been a while since I've read a novel or seen a film whose ending more than lives up to the preceding plot. Too many conclusions these days fail to deliver on their promise. This one succeeds.

Viktor, a lonely journalist nearing 40, lives in Kiev with an Emperor penguin he adopted a year ago when the zoo gave up many of the animals it could no longer afford to feed. Misha, the penguin, lives a quiet, subdued life consisting of little more than a steady diet of fish and cold baths.

Happily, a newspaper hires Viktor to write advance obituaries: summings-up of notable persons' lives to be kept on file for the day the subject dies. It's steady work for decent pay. The editor even encourages Viktor to stretch out the pieces with a little literary-philosophical content.

One day, a sinister but friendly visitor passes along his own obit assignments for very good money. When Viktor complains about having composed more than a hundred obits but having nothing published, the visitor asks which Viktor thinks is his best piece ... and within a day, the subject is dead! Complications and further deaths ensue.

More assignments come from the mobster ("Misha-not-penguin"), who then leaves his young daughter with Viktor "for a short time," but never returns. Little Sonya comes with a big packet of money, so Viktor is able to hire 20-year-old Nina as a day nanny for her. Soon, this quasi-family is settled in for the long haul -- with their penguin -- except that more and more of Viktor's obituary subjects get killed!

_Death and the Penguin_ is written in a dry, simple style. The chapters are short, the narrative rarely embellished. Though there is plenty of humor, it is not laugh-out-loud but of the wry-smile-to-oneself variety.

This is not magic realism, but straight realistic narrative of people (and penguin) behaving quite plausibly under increasingly-odd circumstances. It's a queerly unsensational story that seems perversely matter-of-fact, but accelerates into a sudden and very satisfying climax.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Absurdist Satire from Ukraine, October 4, 2003

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Death and the Penguin (Panther) (Paperback)

Ukrainian author Kurkov's slim novel combines modern political and social commentary with traditional Russian absurdist satire in a story about a writer whose pen is literally mightier than the sword. Set in contemporary Kiev, the tale revolves around Viktor, a friendless and familyless 40ish writer who lives alone in a dreary apartment with Misha, an emperor penguin. Apparently Viktor grew lonely after his girlfriend left him, and got Misha a week later when the zoo could no longer afford to keep him. The penguin lives in his apartment, with occasionally cold baths drawn for him to topple into, and plenty of frozen fish to munch on. This is presented so matter-of-factly that, like the best absurdism, it seems entirely reasonable.

Viktor's life consists of sitting in his apartment struggling on short stories, until one day he is offered a job writing obituaries of public figures for a newspaper. These are not to be written upon the subject's death, but are for the paper to have on file and ready to go when the person dies (this is common practice in the news world). The work is steady and the pay quite generous, as long as Viktor is sure to include veiled innuendoes and subtle moral commentary on the person, as directed by the editor. This is all well and fine, until Viktor's subjects start suddenly meeting their end with alarming regularity... Meanwhile, a mysterious mafioso shows up at Viktor's apartment and leaves his little girl and a huge wad of cash with Viktor for safekeeping.

Kurkov appears to be satirizing the society that has risen from the ashes of the USSR, a society where corruption and organized crime have hijacked the "democratic free market" that replaced communism. For example, one of the funnier little threads has the penguin becoming a "celebrity" mourner at mafia funerals. However, Viktor is too detached to be a truly compelling protagonist. He takes care of Misha, but rarely displays any affection for him-nor any of the other characters who come to rely on him. The book is a darkly amusing tale, but with such a cipher at the center, it's hard to really connect with it. Still, for a glimpse at post-Soviet life and
sensibilities and a taste of Gogolesque humor, it's not bad.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Satire charged with air of menace., January 18, 2004

By 

Michael Murphy (Glasgow, Scotland.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Death and the Penguin (Panther) (Paperback)

A black comedy delivered in an emotionless, deadpan manner, "Death and the Penguin" is a sinister satirical take on life in post-Soviet, modern-day Ukraine. Things take a turn for the better for Viktor, a struggling writer of short stories living alone with only a king penguin for company, when he is taken on by Capital News editor Igor Lvovich to compose obituaries of the various big shots and political big-wigs pulling the strings in post-Soviet Kiev society, these to be kept on file for future use as and when the subjects die. Victor is instructed to incorporate into his compositions, certain loaded material, underlined in the file notes provided him, designed to undermine reputations through insidious innuendo.

Shortly after expressing his frustration to a visitor, Misha-non-penguin, (a Mafia-linked figure who wishes Viktor to write an obituary) that none of his work ever appears in print because none of his selected subjects to-date has died, Viktor is shocked to find that in no time at all, the subject of his best obituary is - lo and behold! - suddenly dead. Thereafter, deaths of Viktor's subjects proliferate with such alarming rapidity that Victor fears his penning of an obituary is tantamount to passing a death sentence, his obituaries of the still living having become in effect, requisitions for future death, each obituary providing per se more than sufficient cause for the snuffing out of a life.

The unwitting dupe of State Security conspiracy, at least initially, Victor has become enmeshed in the violent underworld of Mafia dealings and political machinations where his own life may end being written up in an obituary. Around Victor, the very air seems charged with menace, an air of menace that pervades the novel. Viktor is at the mercy of dark and dangerous forces swirling around him that he can't exactly get a fix on but knows are there, lurking ominously in the background. Entertaining and original!