Viktor Pelevin
Babylon

I am generally skeptical towards contemporary literature, with too many new publications every year that get lost in a sea of mediocrity and people and critics ready to shout miracle for the current booklet/author, wasting themselves with incredible yet improbable comparisons with the greats of the past and with the works themselves destined to oblivion a few months later (do you perhaps notice some parallels with the current music scene? ;) ).

For this reason, I usually choose great classics, a choice whose goodness seemed to be confirmed to me after reading books such as “The Solitude of Prime Numbers” or “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”, where I had given in to the pressures of friends/acquaintances ready to swear on their quality, which upon reading showed maybe even some interesting potential idea from afar (which unfortunately is never developed properly but instead often falls into trivial and pseudo-alternative philosophy that can be served to the masses of average readers who can thus feel intelligent and at peace for having read and even appreciated and understood such a “cultured and committed” work).

However, one should not lump everything together and I am actually glad to occasionally find some book capable of proving me wrong, demonstrating that even today some talented narrators still exist. Going to the library, I see that this time the proposed books follow the theme of “contemporary Russian narrative” and given my love for the great Russians of the past (above all Dostoevsky whom I hope you all know, if not, stop reading this review right now and rush to obtain at least his three best works: “Crime and Punishment”, “The Brothers Karamazov” and “The Demons”), I overcame my natural diffidence towards the production of my contemporaries, also attracted by the interesting cover and decided to give a chance to this Pelevin; after all, the back of the book also seemed to justify this choice with descriptions such as “Pelevin certainly emerges as the best contemporary Russian author” or “A psychedelic Nabokov for our cyber times”.

Well, for once I was not disappointed (I then actually procured myself the other works of our author), the book narrates the exploits of Vavilen Tatarskij, born in the ‘60s in Russia, belonging to the so-called "Pepsi generation" who experiences the transition from the old regime to the rampant capitalism that will take hold in the country (assuming, by the way, one of its most extreme and degenerative forms in the former USSR), providing us with a highly critical but also ironic portrayal of modern society, in a succession of increasingly surreal scenarios, all spiced with cocaine, hallucinogenic mushrooms, Zen doctrines, and Eastern mysticism (the author is passionate about and a scholar of Buddhism, Taoism, etc.).

In short, if you too, like me (as an economics student, I add), consider marketing (the main target of the author) one of the greatest evils ever conceived by humanity and maybe are also passionate about Philip K. Dick atmospheres, you cannot miss the tasting of this work that you will surely appreciate.

Happy reading!