Generation P by Victor Pelevin
About the Event:
Looking for your next great read, or a reason to finally pick this one up? Grab a copy and join us for an evening of lively conversation with fellow book lovers! Each person will share their first impressions, and then our host will lead us into the big questions, the surprising moments, and the parts we can’t quite agree on.
About the book:
Russia, the 1990s. The Soviet Union has collapsed, capitalism has arrived overnight, and everything is suddenly for sale. Babylen Tatarsky, a failed poet with a literature degree and no prospects, stumbles into a job as an advertising copywriter. His task is to make Western brands speak to the Russian soul, and he turns out to be remarkably good at it.
As Tatarsky climbs the ranks of Moscow’s chaotic ad industry, his world grows stranger. Between gangsters, hallucinogens, séances with Che Guevara, and the mysteries of ancient Babylon, he begins to suspect that there may be something much bigger behind the screens, and that the reality they sell may not be real at all.
First published in 1999, Viktor Pelevin’s Generation P is a dark, wildly funny satire of consumerism, media, and power. More than 25 years later, its vision of a world shaped by advertising and manufactured images feels uncannily prescient.
Note: The English translation is published as Homo Zapiens in the US and Babylon in the UK, so look out for those titles when picking up a copy.