It is a very interesting novel, even complex, I would say, and I don't think that I understood everything that was in it. I wonder did I even scratch the surface? It is a concentration-demanding book, but at the same time highly engaging. At times, it reads as if it was written under influence of drugs, yet there is a sense of purpose, a sense that the story is always heading where the author wants it to go, even if the reader can't be completely sure where it is even after he/she has finished the book, which was probably Pelevin's goal.

In a way, it is a book about inability to cope up with changes in society. All patients of the asylum represent a different kind of escapism from reality. Maria's case is probably the most common, she/he seeks refuge in watching television. In the end she/he starts to believe that she/he is one of the characters from a TV show. There is more to it than that, I think that the whole Schwarzenegger/telenovela heroine scene also serves as a criticism of what TV stations are airing in post-communist states. I can only speak for the Czech Republic, but I suppose that the situation in Russia would be similar. After the end of the Communist regime, the TV stations here started to air, at first American movies and shows, and later also cheap Latin-American telenovelas and similar shows, to that point where our own movie and tv show industry became virtually non-existent. It could be seen in the quality of Czech movies, there was a healthy movie industry here during the interwar period, the quality deteriorated slightly during the Communist era, there was an influence of the propaganda among other things, but there were still some pretty good films, after 1989, most of Czech movies has been total crap, there were some exceptions, but very few. Now, after more than 20 years, the situation is slowly getting better. But I still think that it had a negative effect on our culture, as television is the most influential medium. And I believe that this is also why Pelevin uses so many phallic associations in this 'alchemical marriage' of Schwarzenegger and a telenovela heroine. But it was still extremely funny scene.

Serdyuk seeks escape in eastern ideas and code of honor, I guess it can be appealing when you feel that western ideas and society have failed you. The case of the main character is similar, he seeks refuge not only in eastern culture and ideas, but also in the past.

Volodin is another common example, he escapes through taking drugs. For me, the most interesting thing about his part in the book was the question why was he locked in the asylum. He seemed the most 'normal' of the patients. Was he locked there because he was avoiding jail? And another thing that surprised me was how frequently Mafia was mentioned in the story as if it was something common and ever-present in modern Russian society. Is that really so?

Connected to this topic is also the police as they were mentioned several times in the book. The power that the police wield over normal citizens is something I find very strange in literature because if they tried harassing somebody innocent here in the Czech Republic there would be a huge public outrage. This is probably owing to the hatred towards the secret police and their methods during the Communist period. That is why I find it odd when I read about the police persecuting normal citizens just because they can. This is something that I find especially in Latin-American literature, but to some extent it was also in this book, though they looked more corrupt rather than powerful.

The two settings, the post-soviet era Russia and the Russian Revolution era, were both times of changes when the previous long-existing system came to an end. It was extremely interesting to see them put into context with one another.

Here is a passage that I really liked, it's from the last chapter, after Petr Void's escape from the asylum (I translated it from Czech):



There are several elements of the book in this passage - Buddhist(?) ideas - Kocurkin is the Creator of the World because in Petr Void's mind he is the only person who survived the end of the previous world and therefore created this world in his own mind. There are drugs, and a commentary on present-day society from the point of view of a person who lives in the past, and maybe something more.

There is also a part that deals with the fact that Kocurkin has punctured skin on his head. Is this a reference to somebody specific?

I'm sure I didn't fully grasp the Buddhist part. It left me with the feeling that there may be something deeper hidden in it. Is it really there? I don't really know. Also, is Pelevin a Buddhist, or did he get those Buddhist ideas merely through research?

I guess I rather stop now. As I mentioned in my previous post, I liked the book, it was an interesting read.