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Book Review by Angel Gurria-Quintana
Financial Times, London, UK, Weekend, April 4, 2004
"PENGUIN LOST" by Andrey Kurkov, Kiev, Ukraine
Translated by George Bird, Harvill 10.99, 256 pages, 2004
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This book is the third of Andrey Kurkov's novels to be translated into
English. It begins where his first, "Death and the Penguin", ended.
Readers unacquainted with the latter can be forgiven for wondering why the
hero is in Antarctica or what kind of a relationship he has with a penguin
called Misha.
Those who persevere beyond the initial puzzlement, however, will find
themselves irresistibly drawn into a madcap world of private militias and
cut-throat politics, Chechen warlords and former Mafia tough guys.
It is a world Kurkov also portrayed in "The Case of the General's Thumb"; a
world where, to paraphrase the author, crazy idealists have become extinct
but are survived by crazy pragmatists. In this post-Soviet Ukraine, shoes
have "telephone-number-like prices" and high denomination dollar bills seem
to be the only effective currency.
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There is a thriving black market for artificial legs and transplantable
organs. Brand names like Adidas, McDonald's and Pepsi are as ubiquitous as
in the west. Mawkish Mexican soap operas are the most popular form of
entertainment. "The absurd was here amazingly real," Kurkov writes.
In the midst of such commonplace madness we meet Viktor Zolotaryov, former
obituary writer for Kiev's Capital News, on the run from hit men.
A chance encounter with a fugitive banker allows him to return to his home
city, only to discover that all traces of the life he once enjoyed have
disappeared. His first priority is to find Misha - the pet penguin he last
saw before it was subjected to a heart transplant at a Kiev clinic.
Viktor finds himself working for a mobster-turned-politician who puts him on
Misha's trail. The trail leads to Moscow, and later to war-torn Chechnya,
where he is compelled to undertake the grim job of incinerating the war-dead
for a local warlord who is keeping Misha in his private zoo.
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In other hands, this improbably convoluted plot might have derailed into
farce. Instead, the author's deadpan delivery gives it a darkly satirical
edge. Viktor, a common man in extraordinary circumstances, is an innocent at
home and abroad, casting a wry look at the sad cast of characters
surrounding him. In a country awash with casual violence and corruption,
only his lack of malice and ambition keeps him alive.
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Andrey Kurkov
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"The penguin," Viktor declares at the close of "Death and the Penguin", "is
me." Kurkov's sequel flogs the Flaubertian metaphor further, equating the
disorientation suffered by a penguin living in a Kiev flat to that suffered
by Viktor in a society where new freedom brings greater uncertainties. Its
tone is sardonically funny, but this is ultimately a melancholy tale about a
man, as well as a penguin, trying to find their place in a world turned
upside down.
SYNOPSIS:
When last we saw Viktor, in the final pages of Death and the Penguin, he was
taking his seat aboard the Expedition to Antarctica plane, fearing for his
life. Meanwhile, Penguin Misha was left abandoned in a clinic recovering
from a heart transplant. Now, in Penguin Lost, we join Viktor for his brief
stay in and escape from Antarctica to discover that, characteristically, he
has fallen on his feet.
Visiting, on his return to Kiev, Penguinologist Pidpaly's grave, Viktor
mistakes an elusive child in white shirt and black shorts for Misha on
funeral duty. He is first interrogated and then befriended by a Mafia boss
who, while burying his contract-killed son-in-law, is also running for
election as People's Deputy.
Viktor helps in his campaign, and is rewarded with introductions to those
able to further his desperate search for Misha, said to be in the zoo of the
murderous Chechen Khachayev. For Viktor, it is both a quest and an
odyssey of atonement; for the reader, an experience as rich, topical and
black-humouredly illuminating as Death and the Penguin.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Andrey Kurkov was born in St Petersburg in
1961 and now lives in Kiev. He studied at the Foreign Language Institute
in Kiev and has worked as a journalist and film cameraman. He now writes
screenplays and has published four novels and four books for children.
FOR PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC USE ONLY
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