The Blue Lantern: Stories

Victor Pelevin is an amazing writer. My favorite story in this collection is "Crystal World," a night in the lives of two cavalry soldiers guarding an intersection in St. Petersburg on October 24, 1917. My next favorite story is "The Tambourine of the Upper World," in which 3 women travel to a remote forest in Soviet Russia a few decades after World War II in order to participate in a secret ritual. Other stories follow Pelevin's obsession with the psychology of insects and wooden structures.

I am Russian and I love this Author (who I read ususally in original, in Russian). This book I bought for my American Husband (who is great and I adore him:) and I was comparing the two - Russian & English - side by side.In the story my Husband read, the KEY-word was not translated correctly, therefore ruining the whole intrigue and the meaning of the story. My Husband completely missed the point (and he is very sharp & brilliant!:), and it was just for me to follow his reading, catching the mistake and translating it correctly for him.But in general that would be a very difficult author for translation, so it probably is the best you can get. The stories are very mind-challenging anyway. My favorite - Six Toes & Thermit.

Great book.Really

8 stories. At least 3 of them (News from Nepal, Blue Lantern, Tambourine of the Upper World) have the strong metaphysical feel of the Tibetan (or, Egyptian, for that matter) Book of the Dead. In my experience, Pelevin reads as a combination of Daniil Kharms and Dzogchen literature - absurd and enlightening.Several of the stories in this collection might require a bit of Soviet cultural literacy. For example, without knowing that Lenin had a bit of a speech impediment, the central irony of the story may be possibly lost on the reader unfamiliar with the Soviet cultural realities (the two White Guards, patrolling St. Petersburg streets on the eve of the 1917 uprising, discuss their respective historical missions in life; in the meantime they twice encounter Lenin but don't know it!).Finally, "The Life and Adventures of Shed Number XII," not unlike "Buddha's Little Finger" - intentionally or unintentionally - delves into the Buddhist doctrine of Sunyata/Emptiness. Even a shed - empty by definition - asks the infamous neti-neti/koan question of "Who am I?" And the shed - arguably, like human consciousness - solves its existential angst by arbitrarily identifying with one of the objects inside it (a bicycle). "The Blue Lantern" collection is a kind of metaphysical sparring between life and death.Pavel Somov, Ph.D.[...]

...That this book gets such bland ratings. This is my favorite work by Pelevin, a writer who tends to frustrate the hell out me, especially where his most recent novels are concerned.Most of these stories are absurdist gems, in my opinion, and a couple of them (most notably the magnificent "Hermit and Six-Toes," the austere "The tambourine of the Upper World," and the endearingly sweet "Adventures of Shed XII") easily stand amongst my favorite short stories of all time."Hermit And Six Toes": Not many writers can pull off a story that magically works as a satire of communist thought, an illuminating discourse on the search for meaning and truth in life, and a cute story about two chickens stuck in a meat factory. If I were ever to assemble a coursebook of philosophic fiction, "Hermit and Six Toes" would be in there with the best of Borges, Marquez, Babel, Calvino, Dick, and a couple others."the Tambourine of The Upper World" is an odd little mystical story that concerns death and marriage, albeit in a wayou're not expecting at all.And "...Shed XII," wow. If anyone else tried to craft a short story about a shed the wants to be a bicycle... I wince at the thought of pomo jargonists who would just make a huge mess. But Pelevin's story is just that, a heart-rendingly effective tale about a shed that wants to be a bike. I walk away shaking my head every time I finish it, asking, "How did he do that?" A kid would love it (in fact my little brother did a book report on that story in the fifth grade!)That's the thing I guess, some of these stories can be universally appreciated, whereas I can't imagine anyone under the age of 20 finding much enjoyment in any of Pelevin's novels.Now, concerning the reviews... The average reviewer seems to think his novels are better than his short stories. The avergae rating of this (paperback only, the HB has aFIVE STAR RATING, I wonder why the discrepancy?) is three stars. That troubles me as, "Omon Ra," gets four and a half, as does "Buddha's Lil Finger," (formerly known as The Clay Machine Gun). I think both works start out strong, drag a bit towards the middle and resolve in a fairly decent manner (Omon Ra has a pretty tight and unexpected finish, and I enjoyed the cosmonaut's discussions of Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother"). But Pelevin really shines in his stories, he stays on focus and doesn't overload them with befuddling, pseudo-Buddhist, semi-mystical meanderings. And I even like stuff like that, I think its fun, its my bag. But his novels have tooooooo much of a good thing."The Life of Insects," is enjoyable, although it leans heavily on a Russian theft of Kafka. "A werewolf problem in central Russia," is also a fine collection of stories. It gets a tad too out there at times, but still, I think when Pelevin confines himself to a set of themes and characters he does a great job.