Penguin Lost [Paperback]

Firstly, this book will make very little sense if you have not read 'Death and the Penguin', which introduced Viktor and Misha, the penguin who he adopted when the Kiev zoo closed down. The first book is quite brilliant, especially for the maudlin character of Misha, who suffers from depression and is integral to the plot set in post-Soviet Ukraine. A typical Kurkov joke is to describe another human character as 'Misha-non-Penguin' to distinguish him from the penguin.

'Penguin Lost' suffers for the absence of Misha- the plot is disjointed and jumps from one idea to the next - within 3 pages of the start, a coincidental meeting to cause Viktor to leave Antartica and provides him a reason to go to Moscow. Similarly convenient events occur to take the plot through the corruption of post-Soviet politics and the war in Chechenya.

Whereas the first book was effortless and full of mordant humour, the second seems forced, as if written to order. I very much wanted to enjoy this book, but regret that it is an average novel on its own merit and a sad and unnecessary sequel.

This is very much a sequel to Death And The Penguin, Andrey Kurkov's first novel, and if you have not already read that you would do well to do so before reading Penguin Lost.

In Death and the Penguin we meet Viktor Zolotaryov, who adopted a king penguin, Misha, at a time when Kiev Zoo could not afford to feed all its animals. Misha lived with Viktor in his one bedroom flat, initially alone. As the novel proceeds, Viktor, as warm hearted as his name suggests (in Russian, zoloto is gold) acquires some other flatmates too, but is separated from Misha.

In Penguin Lost, Viktor sets about not only recovering Misha but, having done so, returning him to his natural Antarctic habitat. The name of the novel, Penguin Lost, is derived from some posters that a small girl, Sonya, makes to stick up around Kiev. Her nanny advises that the advertised 5000 UHR reward will produce five penguins straight away, some from as far afield as Moscow. It doesn't quite work out that way, but Viktor's pursuit of Misha's trail does take him to Moscow - and on to Chechnya! As in Death and the Penguin, gangsters and local mafias are never far away, and it becomes necessary for Viktor to do business with more than one of them. As ever with Kurkov, the absurd and surreal are given an absolutely lifelike setting, with Kiev and Kievans particularly well described.

I enjoyed this novel. Written six years after Death and the Penguin, the style is more mature and, because the 1999-2000 setting was by the time of writing in the past, Kurkov is more sure of the background. Death and the Penguin involved some predictions for the future, not all of which actually came true. All in all, Penguin Lost is a good read, with some solid food for thought and reflection afterwards, but do read Death and the Penguin first.

In this volume we follow the most recent adventures of Viktor the writer and Misha the penguin, whom we've first met in Death and the Penguin.
Andrey Kurkov does in this book exactly what he did in the previews one: he throws his hero into the most extreme and extravagant situations and using black humor as his weapon of choice he once again comes to describe the world as it came to be after the fall of the Soviet Union.
At the beginning of the novel we meet Viktor onboard a big ship heading for Antarctica, where he's supposed to settle in a research facility. During the journey he becomes a very good friend with a mysterious man called Stanislav Bronikovsky, a man who's very sure, and afraid, that someone's following him. While playing chess and drinking vodka the two men will come so close to each other that the latter will trust the former with a very serious and kind of mysterious mission, and he'll also offer him the means to see it through. So, using Stanislav's Polish passport, Viktor will return to Kiev, his home town, which he had to leave in a hurry not so long ago, hunted as he was by some criminals.
Arriving there though, he'll come face to face with a few surprises, as things during his absence seem to have taken a turn for the better and for the worse at the same time. On the one hand he'll find out that his life is no longer under threat, but on the other he'll also discover that his girlfriend Nina and his kind of adopted daughter Sonia are now living in his house with another man. For some reason though he'll not get as upset as one would expect about that. Besides, he has other things in his mind. Firstly he has to learn where his beloved Misha is, and then he has to honor his word and deliver a package to Stanislav's wife in Moscow.
How is he going to do that? Well, he'll once again be blessed with good fortune. Thus from the one day to the next he'll find himself landing a great job, as he will be hired by an ambitious politician to write his speeches. The latter will not only pay him good money but will also do whatever he can to discover the whereabouts of missing Misha. As they are both soon to find out Viktor can thrive in a job like this: he does not only write outstanding speeches but also organizes a few quite original events for his employer, while when needed he's not unwilling to offer his not so outlandish advice: "Once elected, you never stop promising."
His career in the political arena will not last for long, but during it he'll play his part in some outrageous events, while its end will find him on his way to Moscow. There he'll meet, as planned, Stanislav's wife and thus fulfill his duty. Hell, he'll do even more than that. However, as a man on a mission, he cannot stay still, so soon enough he'll hit the road once again, heading for Chechnya this time, where, according to his sources, Misha is. As expected when there he'll once again go through a kind of hilarious, for the reader, hell before reaching his promised land, the penguin. But that is not the end, since it's exactly then that his new odyssey into unknown waters will begin.
Kurkov, repeating the feat of Death and the Penguin, tells us a story that doesn't seem to take anything seriously, not even itself, and which can be read as an adventure or a comedy or even as social commentary. However, no matter what the Americans insist to say, for me this is not a crime novel. The author is interested in entertaining the reader, but not through the suspense and the action. He simply seems to say: "Just relax, and everything will be fine." Relax and enjoy, I would say instead!