- Hardcover: 153 pages
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc; American ed edition (31 Dec 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0374225923
- ISBN-13: 978-0374225926
- Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,937,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Victor Pelevin's unforgettable first novel, Omon Ra, is the story of a young man who always dreamt of becoming the ultimate Russian hero, a cosmonaut in the mould of Yuri Gagarin. Enrolling as a cadet at the Zaraisk flying school, it is not long before he is chosen to be the sole pilot of a mission - to the dark side of the moon.
'An inventive comedy as black as outer space itself. Makes The Right Stuff look like a NASA handout.' Tibor Fischer
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.About the Author
Born in 1962 in Moscow, Victor Pelevin has swiftly been recognised as the leading Russian novelist of the new generation. Before studying at Moscow's Gorky Institute of Literature, he worked in a number of jobs, including as an engineer on a project to protect MiG fighter planes from insect interference in tropical conditions. One of the few novelists today who writes seriously about what is happening in contemporary Russia, he has, according to the New York Times, 'the kind of mordant, astringent turn of mind that in the pre-glasnost era landed writers in psychiatric hospitals or exile'.$$$His work has been translated into fifteen languages and his novels Omon Ra, The Life of Insects, The Clay Machine-Gun and Babylon, and two collections of short stories, The Blue Lantern (winner of the Russian 'Little Booker' Prize) and A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia, have been published in English to great acclaim.$$$Victor Pelevin was selected by the New Yorker as one of the best European writers under the age of thirty-five.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
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First Sentence
Omon is not a particularly common name, and perhaps not the best there is. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Omon is not a particularly common name, and perhaps not the best there is. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Victor Pelevin is a stunning writer. His satires of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia are so witty, so surreal, and so exact. This is his best perhaps: a funny and tragic take on the Russian space programme, following a group of Soviet youths preparing for a moon landing. His fascination with drugs and psychosis and the plain wierd might bring to mind Will Self, but unlike that mediocre writer, Pelevin has a genuine sense of compassion. Perhaps his greatest talent is that, no matter how far-fetched and extreme he gets, he never loses touch with the humanity of his characters. He makes us care about them. He can also be a heartbreaking writer, and never more so than in this book. Read it!
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was a novel I encountered in my search for fiction and sci-fi from russia and eastern europe, to vary my usual diet of british and american offerings in the same genre. I'm glad that I did.
Omon Ra is entertainment from start to finish, following the main character Omon from early childhood right through to his adventure into the unknown. It's hard to say much about this without revealing huge pieces of the plot (and I just hate reviews which do that), but there's a lot more packed in these pages than just the basic story premise.
It's one of those books that can be read on more than one level. It explores friendship, patriotism, the influence of authority and the burning desire to explore the unknown (and the known). It's bleak and depressing at times, and at others it's emotional and very touching.
This was the first of Pelevin's novels that I've read, and it's a certainty to say that it will not be the last.
Omon Ra is entertainment from start to finish, following the main character Omon from early childhood right through to his adventure into the unknown. It's hard to say much about this without revealing huge pieces of the plot (and I just hate reviews which do that), but there's a lot more packed in these pages than just the basic story premise.
It's one of those books that can be read on more than one level. It explores friendship, patriotism, the influence of authority and the burning desire to explore the unknown (and the known). It's bleak and depressing at times, and at others it's emotional and very touching.
This was the first of Pelevin's novels that I've read, and it's a certainty to say that it will not be the last.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I am fan of all his books, he is extremely popular writer in Russia. KGB, landing to the Moon, Soviet Union and Unated States astronauts - great humor and very funny reading!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Everyone's gone to the moon
Victor Pelevin's "Omon Ra", written in 1994, tracks the career path of Omon Krivomazov from his childhood as a stargazing child who wants nothing more than to fly in space, through... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Leonard Fleisig
Rich in metaphor
The story is a supposedly fictional account of a young cosmonaut whose sworn oath that he would if necessary die for his country unfortunately must be fulfilled far sooner than he... Read more
Published 17 months ago by SmokeNMirrors
Moon Indigo
Omon Ra is everyone who dreams to escape from tedium. When life is bleak and love runs on empty then a man or woman may as well dream of the moon. Read more
Published on 17 Jun 2008 by demola
Scary ideology
This book is the most convincing and because of this, perhaps the scariest exploration of ideology I have ever read. Read more
Published on 9 May 2007 by Nina
Omon Ra
This was the first of Viktor Pelevins books I read. The fluidity of this rather surreal satire is amazing. Read more
Published on 14 Jan 2003
Truly classic book!
This book has everything: drama, great characters, excellent plot and great humor. Well worth buying it!
Published on 21 Nov 1998
Conspiracy, suspence and black humor!
This book is exellent! It has everything in it: suspence, drama, great characters and great humor. It is worth buying it!
Published on 19 Nov 1998
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