ABOUT THE BOOK

Pyotr Voyd, a leading St. Petersburg poet, unexpectedly finds himself commissar to the legendary commander Chapaev and his formidable machine-gunner sidekick, Anna, in the 1919 Civil War. But what is the secret of her machine-gun? Why does Pyotr keep waking to find himself in a psychiatric hospital in 1990's Moscow? And where does Arnold Schwarzenegger fit into all this? The Clay Machine-Gun is unlike any other novel, demonstrating Pelevin's genius for metaphysical comedy and manic satire. It is an intellectually dazzling and hilarious fantasy about identity and Russian history, and a spectacular elaboration of Buddhist philosophy.

Born in 1962 in Moscow, Victor Pelevin has swiftly been recognised as the leading Russian novelist of the new generation. Before studying at Moscow's Gorky Institute of Literature, he worked in a number of jobs, including as an engineer on a project to protect MiG fighter planes from insect interference in tropical conditions.
One of the few novelists today who writes seriously about what is happening in contemporary Russia, he has, according to the New York Times, 'the kind of mordant, astringent turn of mind that in the pre-glasnost era landed writers in psychiatric hospitals or exile.

In 1993 his collection of short stories, The Blue Lantern, won the Russian 'Little Booker Prize'. His first two novels, Omon Ra and The Life of Insects, have earned him international acclaim. Victor Pelevin was selected by The New Yorker as one of the best European writers under thirty-five.

The translator Andrew Bromfield was born in Hull and graduated from the University of Sussex. His career has included lecturing in Russian for 12 years in Ireland, teaching English in Yerevan, Soviet Armenia, and a brief period as an editor in Cyprus. From 1988 to 1993 he lived and worked in Moscow, where he was involved in setting up Glas, the English-language journal of contemporary Russian writing, of which he was co-editor. He has translated widely from Russian, including Victor Pelevin's Omon Ra, Blue Lantern, The Life of Insects and The Clay Machine-Gun. He now lives and works in London.

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Here are some readers' thoughts on "The Clay Machine-Gun":

"Pyotr Voyd flees St. Petersburg for Moscow to avoid being imprisoned by the Cheka. By a weird sequence of events he finds himself detained in a clinic. In even stranger circumstances he becomes commissar to the legendary commander called Chapaev who is a mystic. Chapaev engages Pyotr in long conversations about his existence, the Russian psyche etc. It is almost impossible to distinguish the real from the fantasy. Pyotr goes through a variety of experiences? dreams? visions? He is decorated for valour at a battle. While the story apparently starts around 1918-1919, the appearance of Arnold Schwarzenegger, television, American slang, plastic tables, Japanese samurai, Tibetan Cossacks and elephants leaves the reader constantly wondering in which decade of the twentieth century the action is taking place.

The true nature of the Clay Macine-Gun is revealed at the end of the book, which helps to clarify things somewhat. Pyotr is discharged from hospital and travels on an electric train to Moscow with its neon signs for Samsung, Coca Cola. A taxi driver refers to Pyotr as a young man. So when does the story really start - 1919 or 1990? If 1919, perhaps shades of Wilde's Dorian Gray. If 1991, drug induced fantasy?

I thought it was a good read, though confusing. It was very amusing in places. What was the significance of the colour yellow which appeared so often, and the fact that Pyotr's surname was 'Voyd'!!!

I can but concur with the blurb on the book cover, the writer is "A MASTER ABSURDIST, A BRILLIANT SATIRIST".
I enjoyed it."

(Member of Raheny Reading Group)

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"What am I to make of this novel? It starts off with Petya, a young man seemingly on the run from the Cheka, the secret police in Petersburg, meeting up with a friend in Moscow. The friend invites him to his apartment but he turns out to be a Cheka agent who tries to arrest him there. In the ensuing struggle Petya kills his friend. So this is a political thriller? Wrong! A strong element of satire becomes perceptible and I think I've strayed into the world of Myles na gCopaleen, Russian style - but I'm wrong again, I think.

We next move to a prison hospital where Petya, following an injection, seems to think he's a young woman called Maria. Now the story goes off in Monty Pythonesque direction. Maria meets Arnold Schwarzenegger in a Moscow street and after some preliminaries they take off in a Harrier jet, Arnie piloting and Maria clinging to an antenna attached to the wing. This is where I bail out although I'm only in Chapter 2. I just don't know where I am....this is apparently a comic novel with lots of 'in' jokes for those on the inside track.

As for me, I'm confused, occasionally faintly amused, but most of all not enthused, and I haven't the stamina to struggle on further."

Reader: Raheny Library Reading Group.