I read and enjoyed Kurkov's earlier book Death and the Penguin, but his latest Ukrainian caper doesn't measure up. Set in 1997, the story follows two men sent on very separate secret missions that, of course, ultimately converge. One is lowly Kiev militiaman Viktor, who is assigned to investigate the death of a prominent retired general -- a task that would normally be undertaken at the highest levels. The other is Nik, a lowly KGB linguist reassigned from the Tajik capital Dushanbe to Kiev. Both are being directed by unseen forces.
Viktor receives frequent cell phone calls from the mysterious Georgiy, who basically runs the investigation by telling him where to go, who to talk to, and what to say. Nik is controlled by another KGB agent named Ivan who sets him up with a partner named Sakhno who clearly has some experience wreaking havoc. They are dispatched on a series of seemingly bizarre errands across Poland, Germany, and France, with lengthy periods of waiting around in safe houses. Kurkov takes a while, but eventually it becomes clear that the path both Viktor and Nik are on leads to a secret $400 billion stash that the KGB lost control of and access to in the chaos of post-Soviet restructuring. Viktor is a pawn being pushed around on behalf of an emerging Ukrainian domestic intelligence agency, while Nik is obviously working on behalf of the Russians.
The book is written in the same deadpan voice as Death and the Penguin, and has its moments, but for the most part it lacks that book's absurdist black humor. There are bits and pieces here and there, such as Nik and Sakhno's acquisition of a hearse, a turtle, and a deaf and dumb blonde, but not enough. The detached style combined with the fact that neither Viktor and Nik is particularly in control of their own destiny makes it hard to care much about anything that happens to them. It also doesn't help things that the duo are so lightly characterized that they're hard to tell apart. Things pick up a little in the final twenty pages of the brief novel, but on the whole it's not a great read. Certainly of some interest to those with an interest in things Ukrainian, but not the revelation that Death and the Penguin was.
