Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Homo Zapiens by Victor Pelevin ISBN: 0-14-200181-3 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.86 (7 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: An abstract style
Comment: Victor exposes the disorder of his beloved country Russia with biting wit and black humor. In his latest dystopian novel, "Homo Zapiens," Pelevin focuses on the world of Russian advertising, often with hilarious results.
Babylen Tatarsky, a sales assistant at a Moscow newsstand, stumbles onto a job as a copywriter in Yeltsin's Russia, where the shady, wealthy clients often get shot by the mafia before they can pay him for his work. The challenge of his new job is tailoring Western ads for a Russian market unaccustomed to the values they represent. The slogans crafted by Tatarsky ("DIAMONDS ARE NOT FOREVER! THE BROTHERS DEBIRSIAN FUNERAL PARLOUR" ).
Looking for meaning in a country with a drunken president, daily assassinations of prominent social figures, a bloody conflict in Chechnya and a tightly controlled media oligarchy isn't easy, so Tatarsky turns to unconventional sources. In his search for guidance, he uses an Ouija board to channel the ghosts of Che Guevara and Dostoevski. Tatarsky comes to view reality as an illusion -- one as insubstantial as a television transmission.
Homo Zapiens is probably great fun for Russian readers, who know their realities and can appreciate the author's distortions. For American readers, though, the novel may seem a collection of stereotypes culled from American movies about contemporary Russia. On the whole the writing style is at times difficult to follow.
Rating: 4
Summary: Watch your wow-impulse.
Comment: I am writing this mainly in defence of the translator. I totally disagree with a previous review that blamed Andrew Bromfield for spoiling the book with his "dull, dispassionate British English". Being a native Russian speaker, I have read this novel both in Russian and now in English. I attest that Bromfield does a fabulous job of conveying the message in a crisp and lucid way. The translation is not perfect in that it does not render all subtle allusions, of which are many, equally well, but let's be fair and don't ask for the impossible. As for the qualities of the novel itself, it's not as balanced as Buddha's Little Finger (aka Clay Machine-Gun) but it has quite a few masterfully done images of the post-Soviet reality. And the wow-impulse idea is just brilliant. My advice to a Western reader: do not be tricked by the capricious plot and weird characters; yet do not look for a deeper meaning and hidden references in every sentence. The bitter absurdity of today's Russia is a stage from which Pelevin makes some major statements, which are put forth forcefully and bluntly.
PS: this book is sometimes sold as Babylon.
Rating: 1
Summary: Bizarre and at times unintelligible
Comment: To call this book bizarre would be a phenomenal understatement. Quirky, surreal, and at times so unintelligible that you wonder whether something got lost in the translation, this is not a book that I would recommend highly unless you know Pelevin's work and have enjoyed his particular brand of humor in the past. He certainly possesses a very unique outlook on Russian modern-day culture, and he is unapologetic in his ruthless assault on mass media, political institutions, and other elements of society. But his humor and his cultural reference points are perhaps too esoteric for the average American reader.
In Homo Zapiens, the main character, Tatarsky, stumbles into a career writing ad campaigns for various consumer products, ranging from Sprite to Parliament cigarettes. His new job brings him in contact with a range of zany characters, and ultimately leads him to some disturbing discoveries - such as the revelation that political leaders do not actually exist, but rather are simply digital images created by media companies for public consumption through the air waves. Homo Zapiens is filled with similar social commentaries that add definition to Pelevin's slightly disturbing world view. It is a refreshing, and at times humorous, insight into the Russian mentality, but ultimately not a particularly enjoyable or important piece of writing.
 |
Title: Buddha's Little Finger by Victor Pelevin, Andrew Bromfield ISBN: 0141002328 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 27 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: The Blue Lantern: Stories by Victor Pelevin, Andrew Bromfield ISBN: 0811214346 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
 |
Title: The Life of Insects by Victor Pelevin, Andrew Bromfield ISBN: 0140279725 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1999 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
 |
Title: Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin, Andrew Bromfield, Victor Pelevin ISBN: 0811213641 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: February, 1998 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
 |
Title: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov ISBN: 0679760806 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 March, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
