Pu-239 And Other Russian Fantasies (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Someone committed a simple error that, according to the plant's blueprints, should have been impossible, and a valve was left open, a pipe ruptured, a..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In his second book of short stories, Ken Kalfus takes on the speeding troika that is Russia in the 20th century. It's an astonishing act of literary ventriloquism, displaying a range of subjects and techniques that would be remarkable in any writer, and is that much more so in one working in a tradition not his own. There are not one but many Russias in Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies: the giddy utopianism of the early Soviet Union; the postwar Stalinist personality cult; the brief thaw of '60s liberalism; and, perhaps most affectingly, the post-Gorbachev state, in which infrastructure crumbles while workers go unpaid. The title story begins with an accident in a nuclear plant and ends in unwitting apocalypse, as a technician dying of radiation poisoning attempts to sell weapons-grade plutonium on the black market. The result is part tragedy, part Fargo-style farce, featuring hoodlums so dumb they think they're dealing in drugs: "'What did he call it?' ... 'Plutonium. From Bolivia, he said.'" In "Anzhelika, 13," a young girl is convinced she has caused Stalin's death, while "Salt" is a satiric fairy tale about supply and demand. "Budyonnovsk" finds Viktor Chernomyrdin negotiating not with Chechen hostage-takers but with an exhausted, embattled Russian Everyman, Vasya, who is "old enough to know what a real job is, but not old enough to have ever had one."

The short-story collection suits Kalfus; its eclecticism let him come at his subject from as many angles as he can dream up (and that's a lot). It's harder to sustain the same kind of imaginative momentum in a longer form, which makes the book's final novella an unexpected success. "Peredelkino" follows two writers through an intricate dance of literature, politics, jealousy, and desire, and then closes on a lovely and moving image. The narrator--discredited, disillusioned, his career finished--stands outside his own house "in the dark nowhere place from where authors always watch their readers." Inside is his wife, to whom he has been repeatedly and flagrantly unfaithful, oblivious to his presence but transfixed by his book:

I knew that shortly there would be many explanations to be made, however imperfectly, and then confessions and recriminations, protestations of grief and loss, and then at last hard, practical calculation. Before that, I wanted to absorb, place in words that I would always be able to summon, an image of her like that, the passionate reader.

In a sense, that's us he's looking at, absorbed in the book we've just finished. Kalfus is the kind of writer who can tip his hat to the reader--who can acknowledge our complicity--all without ever lifting us out of the world he's created. Most fiction speaks to either the heart or the head; his does both with ease. --Mary Park --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

These five short stories and one novella demonstrate Kalfus's sense of the absurd, and his marvelous knowledge of modern Russia. The jewel of this collection is its eponymous first story. Timofey, a nuclear engineer, absorbs a toxic amount of radiation in an accident at his workplace, an obsolete provincial nuclear weapons facility. Hoping to leave his family some money after his death, Timofey steals some plutonium and takes it to Moscow, planning to sell it on the black market. But Yeltsin-era Moscow perplexes him absolutely. He makes the mistake of trusting Shiv, a small-time hoodlum who knows no physics: the results are comic and awful at once. Other stories describe the long shadow of Stalinism. "Birobidzhan" is a fascinating version of the bizarre "homeland" for Jews that Stalin sanctioned and attempted to build within Russia. In "Anzhelika, 13," a girl gets her first period on the day Stalin dies. Terrified, she equates the national mourning, her brutish father's grief and her body's function. The novella, "Peredelkhino," begins with the narrator, Rem Petrovich Krilov, about to produce a servile review of a novel by Leonid Brezhnev. The narrative then flashes back to the '60s, just before the Prague Spring, when Krilov is a rising star of Moscow's official literary culture, with his own suburban dacha. After the defection of a beautiful writer whom he had innocently recommended to an editor, Krilov falls from grace; in the repressive post-1968 climate, he is tarred with her "crime." Kalfus shows a striking talent for transcultural understanding, and for depicting the very strange; fans of Paul Bowles, or of Kalfus's earlier collection, Thirst (to be released in paperback by Washington Square Press), won't want to miss these new tales. Agent, Michael Carlisle. Author tour. (Sept.) FYI: First serial rights to one of the stories, "Salt," have been sold to Bomb magazine.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press; 1st Edition (10987654321) edition (November 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743400755
• ISBN-13: 978-0743400756
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 6.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #939,099 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An AbsoluteGem, June 20, 1999

By	A Fan (Two Steps From The Blues, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PU-239 and Other Russian Fantasies: A Novella and Stories (Hardcover)

Whoever sent Ken Kalfus' wife to work in Moscow has done a great service to readers. Placed in such a strange environment, Kalfus has crafted a collection of short stories (and a novella)focusing on individuals who find their own dreams and desires at odds with the system, any system. The result is a rich and satisfying book of great skill, honesty and insight.

In the title story, a scientist contaminated by exposure to radioactivity enters the black market to provide security to his family. In "Orbit," a very human Yuri Gargarin spends an eventful night before his first spaceflight. The novella, "Peredelkino" explores the tension between creativity, love and politics. In each of these stories, and the others, the characters are finely drawn, the narration is deft and the impact made without contrivance or manipulation of the reader.

Kalfus' first book, "Thirst," was a wonderfully diverse collection of stories. "Pu-239" follows up, and even surpasses the promise of that book. "Pu-239" is a treasure.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling collection of short stories, May 14, 2001

By	Scott M. Craig (Overland Park, KS United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kalfus' second collection of stories has a lot to commend it. The title story "PU-239" is the best of the book. Like all short story collections, some are very successful and some are complete misses. In general, I like the way he draws out characters and he is excellent at describing the movements that define a person. In some of the stories, I felt that he only had a cursory, historical knowledge of places and events and that made the story seems a little shallow. Overall, this is a worthwhile book to own and enjoy.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Call it "Inside the Russian Mind.", February 28, 2000

By	Patrick Carroll "Winebibber. Java/JEE Develo... (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: PU-239 and Other Russian Fantasies: A Novella and Stories (Hardcover)

There's an old Russian story about a serf who's granted a wish by a genie. "Kill my neighbour's cow" is the wish. This book expands on that thought process. There's everything, from modern gangster Russia, to the beginning of the Russian space program, to a failed writer surpassed by a lesser, defecting, talent, to a fairy tale involving salt and Russian dog-in-the-manger thinking. This is a great book.