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March 3, 2005
Death and the Penguin
My small but enthusiastic plug for Death and the Penguin, by Andrey Kurkov (trans. George Bird):
Please read this dark and delicate book. It's got all the absurdity of Gogol, but instead of the obligatory sexual paranoia you get a very touching and human work, as well as a particularly effective evocation of the Russian prazdnichnyi stol (which is a detail probably interesting only to me). Viktor, a struggling writer in Kiev, is somehow sucked into the strangely well-paying job of writing obituaries for the still-living. He uses his newfound wealth to buy the choicest fillets of salmon for his depressive pet penguin, Misha, and becomes inadvertent foster father to the little daughter of Misha-non-penguin, a businessman with questionable connections. Read this book! Misha the penguin will break your heart.
Posted by michele at March 3, 2005 7:59 PM