Death and the Penguin
As seen:
By Andrey Kurkov, and and, George Bird
avg rating
1 review
Viktor is desperate: how can he earn a living as a writer when he has a drawer full of unfinished manuscripts? Then he is asked to write the obituaries of Kiev’s VIPs, to be kept on file should they die. His pride at being published soons turns to horror as he is drawn into a terrible conspiracy.
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Whitley Bay Book Group discussed Death and the Penguin in June 2023.
This really was a marmite book for the group, with some loving the book, and rather more just not getting it at all.
Victor is an aspiring writer who lives in a flat in Kyiv with his pet penguin Misha, whom he adopted when the zoo could no longer afford to feed all its animals. He can’t get his stories published, so instead takes a job at a newspaper writing obituaries of VIPs who all stubbornly cling to life. The job is well paid, but he starts to become suspicious when the subjects of his obituaries start to die off.
This is a bleak satire of life in late 1990s post-Soviet Ukraine – the rules have changed, and when you are caught up in situations you don’t understand you just have to go with the flow. Victor fluctuates between being anxious and frightened at what he has got himself into, and being serene and calm.
Those of us who enjoyed the book appreciated the author’s humour, and the darkness and strangeness of the story which was sometimes surreal, sometimes banal. Those who didn’t, found it too bleak and monotonous.
All of us however liked the character of Misha the penguin, and were concerned about him as he was mostly depressed and unhappy. A good part of our discussion revolved around the role of the penguin in the book, whether he was real, or a metaphor, or a double/avatar for Victor. We liked the idea of hiring a penguin to attend a funeral.
We awarded it between 1 and 4 stars, with an average of 2.5.
