Omon RaVictor Pelevin's novel Omon Ra has been widely praised for its poetry and its wickedness, a novel in line with the great works of Gogol and Bulgakov: "full of the ridiculous and the sublime," says The Observer [London]. Omon is chosen to be trained in the Soviet space program the fulfillment of his lifelong dream. However, he enrolls only to encounter the terrifying absurdity of Soviet protocol and its backward technology: a bicycle-powered moonwalker; the outrageous Colonel Urgachin ("a kind of Sovier Dr. Strangelove"—The New York Times); and a one-way assignment to the moon. The New Yorker proclaimed: "Omon's adventure is like a rocket firing off its various stages—each incident is more jolting and propulsively absurd than the one before." |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - DarthDeverell - LibraryThingVictor Pelevin's Omon Ra imagines a Soviet Union that never had the capabilities of the real U.S.S.R. and so had to fake everything to maintain its geopolitical power, including nuclear weapons and ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - KimMarie1 - LibraryThingNobody weaves a tale better than Pelevin. Full of unexpected twists and turns he never disappoints. I found the first half of the book a little on the slow side but the middle to end more than made up ... Read full review
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Common terms and phrases
actually already answer arms asked Atom Heart Mother began beside called carried close Colonel Comrade corridor course covered dark didn't Dima don't door earth empty everything eyes face father feel felt final Flight Leader floor flying front gave glass half hand hanging happened head heard hour imagine inside It's Ivan jacket kind knew land later legs lives looked mean metres minutes Mitiok moon moonwalker moved never noticed Omon picked pointed quiet radio realised receiver remember rocket round seemed seen side sitting sound Soviet space standing stars steps stood stopped strange suddenly switch talking tell thing thought took tried turned understand Urchagin voice walked wall wanted watching wheels window
Popular passages
Page 27 - We showed the sleepy soldier on gate duty our warrants from the district military enlistment office and the passports we had received only recently; we were admitted and told to go to the club, where a meeting was about to begin. Immediately to the right of an asphalted roadway leading into the centre of a small settlement was the beginning of the Lunar Village I had seen in the magazine — it consisted of several long, single-storey barracks buildings painted yellow...
Page 30 - August sky. Those of us who were enrolled as first-year cadets were summoned to a meeting with the flight-training staff — the teachers were already waiting for us in the club. I remember heavy velvet drapes and a table across the full width of the stage, with officers sitting at it looking strict and official. The meeting was chaired by a youthful-looking lieutenant-colonel with a skinny pointed nose: while he was talking, I imagined...
Page 27 - I had seen in the magazine — it consisted of several long, single-storey barracks buildings painted yellow, surrounded by a dozen or so tyres dug into the ground, and a special plot designed to look like a panoramic view of the surface of the moon. We walked past it and came to the garrison club, where the boys who had come to enrol were crowded around the columns. Soon an officer came out, appointed someone sergeant, ordered us to register with the examination committee and then go and collect...
Page 35 - The newspaper rustled a few times as its pages were turned, and then sank down onto the table. There in front of us was the little old man with the scar on his forehead, the one who had grabbed me by the arm during the interview. Now he was wearing the uniform of a lieutenant-general with brocade at the buttonholes, his hair was neatly brushed down, and his gaze was clear and sober. I noticed that his face seemed like a copy of the one that...
Page 37 - ... darting about above the beds. On the way out, the yellow-haired lieutenant told us that a combined graduation party and final state exam was about to begin. Soon we were watching our lieutenant, the first of about fifty like him, as he danced the "Kalinka
Page 36 - The fact is that if you are confirmed, over the next 4 years, you and I will be seeing quite a lot of each other...
Page 30 - Okay, boys, we don't want to begin by talking about scary stuff, do we? But you know well enough we don't get to choose the times we live in — the times choose us. Maybe I shouldn't be giving you this kind of information, but I'm going to tell you anyway...
Page 35 - The person sitting at the desk was hidden from me by the open pages of a copy of Pravda, from the front of which a wrinkly face with radiantly kind eyes stared straight at me. The lino on the floor squeaked, and Mitiok's bed came to a halt beside mine. The newspaper rustled a few times as its pages were turned, and then sank down onto the table.
Page 36 - ... where several senior generals with kind intelligent faces, including Comrade Flight Leader, were sitting at a table. Of course, Mitiok and I could have walked there on our own, but the lieutenant said that this was standing orders for first-year cadets, and he ordered us to lie still so as not to upset the others. All those beds stacked up against...
Page 33 - ... piece of cloth. I tried to open my mouth to ask him what was wrong, but discovered that I couldn't move my tongue, and I had no feeling at all in the lower part of my face, as though it had gone numb. I guessed that my mouth must be...
Bibliographic information
| Title | Omon Ra Volume 851 of New Directions paperbook |
| Author | Viktor Pelevin |
| Translated by | Andrew Bromfield |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | New Directions Publishing, 1998 |
| ISBN | 0811213641, 9780811213646 |
| Length | 153 pages |
| Subjects | › › Fiction / Literary Fiction / Science Fiction / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |