Details

ISBN-10: 0811219429
ISBN-13: 9780811219426
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publish Date: 10/27/2011
Dimensions: 6.90" L, 4.50" W, 0.40" H

The Hall of the Singing Caryatids

Translator: Andrew Bromfield

Paperback

Price: $11.95

Overview

After auditioning for the part as a singing geisha at a dubious bar, Lena and eleven other “lucky” girls are sent to work at a posh underground nightclub reserved exclusively for Russia’s upper-crust elite. They are to be a sideshow attraction to the rest of the club’s entertainment, and are billed as the “famous singing caryatids.” Things only get weirder from there. Secret ointments, praying mantises, sexual escapades, and grotesque murder are quickly ushered into the plot. The Russian literary master Victor Pelevin holds nothing back, and The Hall of the Singing Caryatids, his most recent story to be translated into English, is sure to make you squirm in your seat with utter delight.

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Reviews
The book's concluding pages are delightfully enigmatic, fogged over just enough with metaphor that it's impossible to say quite what happens. Likewise, we never really know if the mantis has empowered Lena or seduced her into shameful political violence. That's all toward the beauty of Pelevin's project: a satire sharp enough to score points against the malign, yet retentive of a fine negative capability that takes these very same targets and makes of them a document that shimmers with the evasiveness of art.–Scott Esposito "The National"
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Details

ISBN-10: 0811219429
ISBN-13: 9780811219426
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publish Date: 10/27/2011
Dimensions: 6.90" L, 4.50" W, 0.40" H
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