The Yellow Arrow (New Directions Paperbook) [Paperback]

Andrew Bromfield (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2009 | Series: New Directions Paperbook

Set during the advent of perestroika, a surreal, satirical novella by a critically acclaimed young Russian writer traces the fate of the passengers on The Yellow Arrow, a long-distance Russian train headed for a ruined bridge, a train without an end or a beginning--and it makes no stops. Andrei, the mystic passenger, less and less lulled by the never-ending sound of the wheels, has begun to look for a way to get off. But life in the carriages goes on as always. This important young Russian author's first American translation garnered rave reviews.

The main character, Andrei, is a passenger aboard the Yellow Arrow, who begins to despair over the trains ultimate destination and looks for a way out as the chapters count down. Indifferent to their fate, the other passengers carry on as usual — trading in nickel melted down fro the carriage doors, attending the Upper Bunk avant-garde theatre, and leafing through Pasternak’s Early Trains. Pelevin's art lies in the ease with which he shifts from precisely imagined science fiction to lyrical meditations on past and future. And, because he is a natural storyteller with a wonderfully absurd imagination. The Yellow Arrow is full of the ridiculous and the sublime. It is a reflective story, chilling and gripping.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While the Soviet space program, that repository of Party and national pride, provides Pelevin the setting for his satire of Communist-era Russia (see Omon Ra, above), he takes on contemporary Russia by employing one exquisite metaphor for post-Soviet anxiety and sustaining it through the course of his narrative. The Yellow Arrow, a Russian train with no visible beginning or end, hurtles toward its destination, a ruined bridge. It's impossible to get off because the train makes no stops. When passengers die, their bodies are ceremoniously tossed out the windows. Characters include Andrei, who desperately wants to get off the train while still alive; Grisha, who is brutally mugged between two cars; Anton, bohemian painter of beer cans; and Sergei, who gets religion and becomes a "bedeist" ("They believe we're being pulled along by a 'B.D.3' locomotive... travelling toward a Bright Dawn"). Together, they reflect a post-Soviet realm in disarray, its people groping for political and moral direction while criminal mafias and extremist politicians gain ground. From time to time, people escape the train's stifling communal space by climbing out onto the roof, where they communicate in wordless gestures. A surreal metaphysical tale? A political allegory? Or a parable about the inseparability of life and death? It's all three, as Pelevin fuses pungent, visceral imagery reminiscent of Maxim Gorky with an absurdist comic outlook that harks back to the wave of Russian avant-garde fiction of the 1920s and '30s. Written in 1993, this beautiful and mysterious novella tantalizes with its multiple meanings.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

An enigmatic novella, whose suggestive central image strikingly encapsulates the character of post-Soviet society and, more generally, the fate of man--from the prize-winning Russian author of Omon Ra (see above). Protagonist Andrei is riding on a train called the Yellow Arrow, whose destination, he learns, is a ruined bridge. Passengers die, their funerals are held on board the train, and their bodies are thrown ``out there'' beyond the passing embankments. ``World culture takes a long time to reach us,'' Andrei's fellow travellers complain, enduring their closeted state as best they can by practicing an indigenous ``folk art'' (the train does a thriving business in handpainted beer cans) and also the religion of ``bedeism'' (the belief that they're being pulled along by a ``B.D. 3'' locomotive). One thinks, inevitably, of a cramped and repressed population unable to break free of its imprisoning environment--but Pelevin's wry fable earns a convincingly wider resonance. Andrei guesses that the train may be named as it is because its lateral motion visually resembles the vertical descent of falling stars (``yellow arrows'') in the foreordained transit from incandescence to extinction. He shares the common yearning to journey ``out there'' past his compartment's windows, while knowing he can do so only when his own portion of the train's journey is concluded. Imagine Hermann Hesse with a robust sense of humor, and you'll have an idea of the complex emotional texture Pelevin manages to create for his story's climactic moment--a climax that daringly evokes, and does not suffer from comparison with, Tolstoy's great short novel The Death of Ivan Ilyich. A brilliant parable that treats a dauntingly abstract conception with vivid specificity and clear-eyed humanity. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: New Directions (May 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811213552
• ISBN-13: 978-0811213554
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,073,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Remarkable Fable by One of Russia's Finest Writers, August 31, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Yellow Arrow (Hardcover)

"The Yellow Arrow", a ninety-two page novella, was the first of Victor Pelevin's books to appear in English translation and provides an excellent introduction to one of Russia's finest contemporary writers.

"The Yellow Arrow" of the title is "a train traveling towards a ruined bridge." It is a train, however, that appears to have no beginning and no end. It is a train that makes no stops. From this simple premise, Pelevin elaborates a sometimes absurd, sometimes mystical, parable of life in Russian society. Or is it life in general? Either way, the narrative works on many levels and provides an entertaining and, for those who like, metaphysically speculative foray into where we're all headed.

"The Yellow Arrow" is essentially the story of one passenger-Andrei's-life on the train. Told in the third person, the reader lives inside the mind of Andre, thinking what he thinks, seeing what he sees, experiencing what he experiences. Andrei becomes the protagonist for open-ended speculation about the meaning of life on the train. Thus, early in the narrative, Andrei sits in the restaurant car of the train and speculates (in a passage that is typical Pelevin and that provides a resonant connection to the meaning of "The Yellow Express"):

"Watching the hot sunlight falling on the table-cloth covered with sticky blotches and crumbs, Andrei was suddenly struck by the thought of what a genuine tragedy it was for millions of light rays to set out on their journey from the surface of the sun, go hurtling through the infinite void of space and pierce the mile-thick sky of Earth, only to be extinguished in the revolting remains of yesterday's soup. Maybe these yellow arrows slanting in through the window were conscious, hoped for something better-and realized that their hopes were groundless, giving them all the necessary ingredients for suffering."

The train becomes a deep-seated metaphor for lives in society, for those who live those lives with unquestioning acceptance and for those who don't-those who wonder about the train and about whether there is anything else, anything outside the train. Thus, Andrei's friend, Khan, draws a distinction between those like him and Andrei, who reflect and question where they are and what they're doing, and those who do not: "A normal passenger never thinks of himself as a passenger. So if you know you're a passenger, you no longer are one. They could never imagine it's impossible to get off this train. Nothing else exists for them, apart from the train."

But whether or not anything exists outside the train, whether you can get off the train, is less important than what is in your head. As Khan suggests to Andrei, "It doesn't matter in the least whether anything else exists apart from our train. What matters is that we can live as though there is something else. As though it really is possible to get off. That's the only difference. But if you try to explain that difference to any of the passengers, they won't understand."

I hope this gives a flavor for Pelevin's writing and for the tone of "The Yellow Express." While a short work, Pelevin succeeds in creating a compelling and satirically amusing metaphorical world, a world that provides sublime insight into what it means to think and to question in a society that encourages unquestioning acceptance.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's not about Russia, it's about all of us, May 12, 2006

By 

ProXor - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Yellow Arrow (Hardcover)

I really like this novel - one my favourites. For those who see only the post-soviet Russia in it, I must say it's not. It's about all of us, no matter who and where you are. It's about people whose life is scheduled in advance, who keeps going on a circular route from home to work 24/7 with no stops to enjoy the beauty of life. Even if one got a penthouse in Hawaii and a Lexus in his garage - he's still on the train - it's just he switched a public wagon to а couchette. The novel is telling that every day's routine cannot bring happiness - sooner or later the train will hit the ruined bridge. The only way to stop this, author sees in getting off the train - put yourself above the dull routine and listen to the wind, cricket's chirr and your own footsteps. One may think of even a more sophisticated interpretation - the train is a life, and the off-track is an after-life. That's the beauty of Pelevin's works - they are full of hints and allusions so one may find thousands of ways to understand them.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous Parable, June 1, 2000

By 

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

This review is from: The Yellow Arrow (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)

The Yellow Arrow is a slim volume that is powerful - written as a long metaphor or parable of contemporary Russia and of mankind as a whole. There is a strong mystical element in the story; unlike some literature that has a mystical undercurrent, the book remains concrete and `realistic'. The story line is of living on a train - a train on an endless journey - with passengers who are often unaware that they are on a train. "Outside the train" is where the dead are pushed. Fascinating premise, extremely well done.