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Amazon.co.uk Review
This strange, thoughtful and gentle novel will leave the reader satisfied and perplexed at its conclusion. Kurkov seems to question whether Victor or the Penguin is lonelier and more out of place in his environment. The Death in the title is ever present, though not in an oppressive way, but this also makes one want to question Victor's belief that a long hard life is better than a quick death. Many comparisons will undoubtedly be made between Kurkov's novel and the writing of other authors from the former Soviet republics to make it to print in the United Kingdom. Certainly it's fair to say that this belongs to the tradition of Russian satire made well known in this country by writers such as Mikhail Bulgakov and Venedikt Yarofeev. It is also interesting to read this alongside the works of contemporaries such as Evgenev Popov and Viktor Pelevin. However, where Pelevin drifts off into the fantastical and esoteric, Kurkov keeps it deadpan and very real. It is important to remember that many of the strange events that occur in this book are grounded in fact: amals really were given away by Kiev zoo--truth is often stranger than fiction. --Iain Robinson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Viktor, working under a lonely naivety and distracted by the care of his penguin 'Misha' (rescued from a cash strapped zoo), becomes unknowingly embroiled in the dark politics of Ukrainian politics and feuding Mafia gangs, whilst he searches for the cure to his lonely existence.
Getting a job as a writer hired to write obituaries of the most notorious characters in Kiev, he soon grows suspicious when the subjects of his premature tributes begin to conveniently die. We never see anything of the bloody feuds behind the scenes but are fed enough snippets via Viktor's own misguided speculation to begin to piece together the dark underlying truth.
The ending was perfectly executed, without being too obvious and yet remaining true to the plot and tone of the rest of the book. The whole novel left me feeling deeply satisfied, I cannot recommend this novel enough.
I have just read this book along with Joseph Conrad's 'The Secret Agent' and Christian Cook's 'Broken Eggshells' and can wholeheartedly recommend these three as a complimentary set. Conrad's as a historical backdrop to the genre and 'Broken Eggshells' as a nice, but subtly different, contemporary cousin to Kurkov's own work.
Here too is a stark, if one-sided, portrayal of life in the former Soviet state of Ukraine. And it's not a nice life. It's cold, it's hard and seemingly pointless. Deprived of the structure of the state, each seems to struggle to embrace with vigour the concept of democratic freedom. What Death of a Penguin amounts to is a strong indictment of a political reform which has left a population, bereft of communist community, without any societal fabric at all: without hope, without security and unable to realise the promise of liberty. This book is very funny. It's very sad. And it's very, very good.
A Ukraininan writer, Kurkov plunges us with irony and humour into a world full of invisible manipulation. Read more
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