Book of the Month: January 2022

03.01.2022

Yusuf Cil recommends Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov (1996, translated by George Bird 2001).

"Have you ever written an obituary? If yes, also for someone who is still alive? Hopefully not, but this is what the protagonist, Viktor A. Zolotaryov, does for a living in the bleak city of Kiev. Having neither talent nor luck to pursue a career as a writer of prose, Viktor finds himself at the doorway of an ominous newspaper company after another rejection at the tabloids. What waits for him there is the offer to write obituaries called obelisk - finally a genre at which he excels. However, upon the beginning of his new literary career, these mysterious pieces intrude more and more into his ordinary life with his unusual pet and partner-in-crime: the depressed penguin Misha. Certainly a setting without compare, where one cannot but wonder,... what will happen when his first obelisk is published?"

Kurkov's novel is admittedly not an eloquent masterpiece - but why should it be? The paratactical tone of the text bears a simplicity which does not fret over details but fits the steady progress of the story. The form and pacing almost reminds one of an old film projector, rattling to produce thrilling pictures of black and white. Again, colour is not even needed, as the comfortable monotony of Viktor and Misha's life confronts the reader with the old dichotomy of "life and death" from a lightly angle; sometimes relatable and somewhat humble. And at the very end, one can only wonder, where to get a penguin?"