- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Harvill Secker (6 Sep 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1843432579
- ISBN-13: 978-1843432579
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.4 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 524,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Kurkov conjures up both Gogol and Dostoyevsky - Genuinely original --Scotsman
Kurkov's eye for the absurdities of Ukrainian life is as sharp as ever --Sunday Telegraph
Kurkov is hugely talented. Truly very funny --Time Out
Kurkov's eye for the absurdities of Ukrainian life is as sharp as ever --Sunday Telegraph
Kurkov is hugely talented. Truly very funny --Time Out
Daily Sport
`Darkly humorous satire... Throw in a doomed romance and it makes for an hilarious mix'.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Kurkov's previous books have been short and simple, and usually based around one quirky premise. I was wondering what he would do with a much bigger book. The answer is that this is basically three such stories woven together around the same character.
Written a little like diary entries, the novel flits between Bunin as the beleaguered president of Ukraine in 2016, and his earlier years as a student, or as a deputy minister. Some might find the cutting back and forth a little irritating. I thought it was quite effective. Each era has its own key characters and surreal elements, contributing their own aspects to the overall portrait and building well towards the final conclusion.
Fans of Kurkhov will find much they recognise - the seedy underbelly of Ukrainian society, a listless, unemployed protagonist, the regular quaffing of vodka - but this reaches further than any of his previous novels. It has a new breadth and depth, and Bunin feels like a much better developed, more complex character. And so he should be, with 40 years and 440 pages to play with. Kurkhov still can't write a decent female character unfortunately, the several here all being as capricious as any of those in his earlier works. That remains his only real weakness, in my opinion.
If you haven't read Kurkhov before, Death and the Penguin is still the place to start, but read this second. You'll find it funny, moving, and memorably unique.
Written a little like diary entries, the novel flits between Bunin as the beleaguered president of Ukraine in 2016, and his earlier years as a student, or as a deputy minister. Some might find the cutting back and forth a little irritating. I thought it was quite effective. Each era has its own key characters and surreal elements, contributing their own aspects to the overall portrait and building well towards the final conclusion.
Fans of Kurkhov will find much they recognise - the seedy underbelly of Ukrainian society, a listless, unemployed protagonist, the regular quaffing of vodka - but this reaches further than any of his previous novels. It has a new breadth and depth, and Bunin feels like a much better developed, more complex character. And so he should be, with 40 years and 440 pages to play with. Kurkhov still can't write a decent female character unfortunately, the several here all being as capricious as any of those in his earlier works. That remains his only real weakness, in my opinion.
If you haven't read Kurkhov before, Death and the Penguin is still the place to start, but read this second. You'll find it funny, moving, and memorably unique.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ukrainian President Sergey Bunin wakes from heart transplant surgery to find his country careering absurdly out of control: an oligarch is threatening to cut the nation's electricity supply, giant Vatican recognised miracle potatoes are sprouting in the east and, to make matters worse, a crazed widow is demanding visitation rights to her deceased husband's heart. It is just another day in the life of a president. But Bunin hates this life; all he wants is to go ice swimming with his friends. The question arises: how did he ever become president?
The President's Last Love chronicles Bunin's dubious rise up the political ladder, from catering college and failed romance to tragedy and the birth of a political career. But as he lives and loves it becomes apparent that there are some things beyond even the power of spin to remedy. The heart, you see, is not a potato. Kurkov is a wonderful writer, humane and hilarious, and this may be even better than Death and the Penguin. Read it; you are in for a treat.
The President's Last Love chronicles Bunin's dubious rise up the political ladder, from catering college and failed romance to tragedy and the birth of a political career. But as he lives and loves it becomes apparent that there are some things beyond even the power of spin to remedy. The heart, you see, is not a potato. Kurkov is a wonderful writer, humane and hilarious, and this may be even better than Death and the Penguin. Read it; you are in for a treat.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
After reading 'Death and the Penguin' by Kurkov, I was compelled to go out and buy another of his books. I have to admit, I didn't even read the blurb - I just paid! And I did great - this book makes for compulsive reading! Following the main character Sergey Pavlovich through 3 eras of his life simultaneously, it's a little like being on a rollercoaster at times, and it's pretty damn hard to put down - there are not many points at which you think, 'well OK I can wait a little while to find out what happens next'. If you've read and enjoyed anything by Russian or Ukrainian authors, then I highly recommend Kurkov - he writes in the wonderfully absurd and satirical style that seems peculiar to that part of the world, and he does it really well. One of my top 5 authors at the moment!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The President's Last Love
Andrey Kurkov is one of those writers I keep forgetting about and then re-discovering. I first encountered him work with Death And The Penguin
several years ago but since... Read more
several years ago but since... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lucybird
Where there are dollars, morality and justice evaporate
Written in 2004 from the standpoint of 2016, this novel has turned-out remarkably prophetic, not least in that the Ukrainian president elected in 2004 proved to be a one-term... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Lost John
A fantastic novel
A fantastic novel!
Structured in what at first is a slightly disconcerting way; short chapters set in different years, meeting Sergey Pavlovich at different times in his life. Read more
Structured in what at first is a slightly disconcerting way; short chapters set in different years, meeting Sergey Pavlovich at different times in his life. Read more
Published 7 months ago by A. J. Kubicki
Not as good as the Penguin novels
Kurkov is best at humour, in particular the absurdities of post-Soviet life in the Ukraine - corrupt politicians, incompetent low-level officials, etc. Read more
Published on 21 Feb 2008 by Robert Mak
It's just worth persevering with the irritating structure of this book
"Conjures up both Gogol and Dostoevsky" gushes the blurb on the cover. Really? I found this novel both irritating and frequently tedious, and would have given it up long before... Read more
Published on 29 Oct 2007 by Ralph Blumenau
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