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The Blue Lantern: Stories

Victor Pelevin

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Feb 20, 2019 Tony rated it liked it

Shelves: translated-fiction, short-stories, setting-europe

This collection of eight short stories fresh from post-Soviet Russia was written 25 years ago, and having finally gotten around to reading them, I can't help but feel time has worn the edge off them somewhat. Although to be fair, it could also be the case that readers with a deeper sense of Russian and Soviet history and culture will find layers that eluded me.

Probably my favorite story was the final one, "The Tambourine of the Upper World" -- in which two women travel the country with an practi This collection of eight short stories fresh from post-Soviet Russia was written 25 years ago, and having finally gotten around to reading them, I can't help but feel time has worn the edge off them somewhat. Although to be fair, it could also be the case that readers with a deeper sense of Russian and Soviet history and culture will find layers that eluded me.

Probably my favorite story was the final one, "The Tambourine of the Upper World" -- in which two women travel the country with an practitioner of arcane arts, seeking the corpses of Western men to bring back to life so they can arrange a marriage with someone who wants to obtain a foreign passport. A similarly surreal take on post-Soviet life occurs in "Mid Game", which follows two hard currency prostitutes in Moscow and their strange encounter with a pair of possible serial killers, with the plot twist of sex-change serving as metaphor for ideological change.

Other stories take place deeper in history -- in the titular story, children in a Young Pioneer camp tell scary stories at night, but I couldn't work out what it all meant. In "Crystal World", two White Russian soldiers on guard duty in St. Petersburg banter away the night, unclear on why they are guarding the street, and oblivious to their multiple encounters with Lenin on the night of the Uprising.

There's a strong philosophical strain to most of the stories, which is not something I responded to, however inventively executed. "The Life and Adventures of Shed XII" is a meditation on the meaning of existence through the eyes of a shed. "Hermit and Six-Toes" is much the same, but through the lives of chickens. "Nika" is written as if it is about the relationship between a man and woman, although it's obvious early on that the woman is actually a cat or dog.

As exciting as this collection might have been when it came out, I can't help but feel that it's more of a curiosity at this point. I can't see myself recommending this to anyone but the most diehard fan of post-Soviet writing. ...more

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