The Sacred Book Of Werewolf

The Age

Saturday April 12, 2008

Cameron Woodhead

The Sacred Book of Werewolf

Victor Pelevin

Faber & Faber, $32.95

WITH THE SACRED Book of Werewolf, Victor Pelevin breathes feral, Gothic, postmodern life into the Russian novel. A. Hu-Li looks like a teenage prostitute. But this mystic fox is millennia old. Seducing mortals with her magic tail, she feeds on their fantasies. After an erotic mishap causes the death of a client, A. Hu-Li is reduced to posting ads on the internet. That's how she attracts high-ranking FSB member Alexander Sery and soon learns, when his lusts transform him into a wolf, that she's not the only were-creature in the room. Naturally, she gets her Little Red Riding Hood outfit on. Pelevin has created an anarchic postmodern romp that changes genres more rapidly and more often than Madonna changes outfits. It veers between semantic games and fairytales, dark eroticism and Buddhist philosophy, surreal twists and nihilistic satire on the state of Putin's Russia. Pelevin's formidable intellect, burgeoning humour and ferocious imagination make him the way of the future for Russian lit.

© 2008 The Age

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