The Blue Lantern by Victor Pelevin Search Amazon for other books by or about Victor Pelevin. Rating: Reviewed by: John Walsh

Just because life is miserable now does not mean that it is going to become any better in the future. That would seem to be the rather depressing summary of the main themes explored in Victor Pelevin's very strong collection of short stories The Blue Lantern. In various environments, often bizarre ones, the protagonists search for a means of escape but find that breaking through whatever barrier constrains them does not improve their situation. This is, of course, entirely consistent with the Soviet atheist worldview, which was rather depressing for all those involved by all accounts. So, chickens (I thought they were crabs but then I live in a city where seafood is taken seriously) plot to escape their confinement while developing their philosophical understanding of reality (which is rather hampered by the very limited access to information that they have), only to find that the "gods" who rule over them are less omnipotent than might have been supposed. Two young Communist pioneers end up as transsexual prostitutes, although their lives can scarcely have been said to have been improved as a result. Another woman, from an obscure Siberian tribe, is able to bring the dead to life and sparks an industry in which the non-Russian fallen of the Second World War are dragged back from the purgatory they inhabit to become more or less willing groom for Russian women despairing of finding suitable Russian men as partners. In every case, a form of hope is created and sustained despite the odds only to be subverted. On the other hand, there are some possibilities for a brief form of victory.

Under such circumstances, naturally, people will tend towards instant gratification and materialism, while eschewing hope of eventual salvation. This could well lead to the kind of nihilism that would have Dostoyevsky rotating sedately in his grave. Yet the Soviet world--and this book was published in 1994 when the contours of the post-Soviet world were just emerging from the despair-inducing destruction of the Russian economy by the International Monetary Fund and the neoliberals of the west--was just the kind of society in which such destructive nihilism was likely to become rife, as the ongoing tragedy of poverty and rampant alcoholism in the country will testify. However, Pelevin is a skilful enough writer to avoid the irredeemable descent into misery and leavens his offerings with sufficient humour and whimsy as to provide the reader with a desire to press on to the end. Yet even protagonists as unexpected as a wooden shed retain unmistakably human characteristics.

Pelevin is one of the leading contemporary Russian writers and his works focus on the properly Russian obsessions with the purpose of life and, to a slightly lesser extent, the nature of the Russian soul. Unobtrusively translated by Andrew Bromfield, these stories represent a fascinating introduction to his work. Readers will be likely to wish to explore further of his works.