7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Astronomically good..., 16 Sep 2005
This review is from: Omon Ra (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!
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thoughtful, touching, satirical, 21 Feb 2003
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.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny reading., 21 April 2011
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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