Joe Bloggs

Homo Zapiens

I was spared the misery of reading this novel by young Russian author Victor Pelevin in Chicago by virtue of finishing it on the plane from Los Angeles. What a relief to get that one out of the way. If I was to be kind I could say that it shared a similar theme to Things Fall Apart in that it deals with the aftermath of the onslaught of western culture - in this case post-communist Russia. However, the pain involved in reading such overblown and banal literature doesn't induce any kindness in me.

That Pelevin is clever and is well versed in western culture - references as diverse as Robert Pirsig, Freddy Mercury, the "iron boot" of Microsoft, Charles Manson, Darth Vader and "his asthmatic wheezing" etc., are sprinkled throughout the book - is not in doubt, but if he could have showed off less and worked more on his storyline and style, I might have enjoyed it more. Might. Some way into the book the main character (I saw him very much as Pelevin himself) is told to "pile on the cynicism", to which he replies "That's easy enough". Sure was. A cynicism that possibly fellow (young) countrymen and women need to reinforce their own bitter feelings about Russian society falling prey to greed and outside influences, but to have it rammed home in page after page of drug influenced diatribe was a bit difficult for this reader to take.

So what does Homo Zapiens mean? Well it is "simply the residual luminescence of a soul fallen asleep; it is a film about the shooting of another film, shown on a television in an empty house". Oh very simple! Don't bother with this one.