Victor Pelevin

Why you should read Pelevin

Viktor Pelevin has been meeting with the most famous intellectual writers for many years. If we take into account the almost thirty years of belonging, then on his account there are not so many works. He usually takes his time with his problems, and the magazine publishes a book a year.

His work is based on a combination of Buddhist philosophy, social satire and a vivid description of the life of the most ordinary people. With rare exceptions, his works are not covered by others, and only minor mutual references can be seen in them.

But even on a general theme, each book by Pelevin is unique, and the form and presentation are greatly appreciated. Therefore, before starting to read, it is better to familiarize yourself with a guide to creative work.

Victor Olegovich Pelevin (Russian: Виктор Олегович Пелевин) is a Russian fiction writer, the author of novels Omon Ra, Chapayev and Void, and Generation P. He is a laureate of multiple literary awards including the Russian Little Booker Prize (1993) and the Russian National Bestseller (2004). His books are multi-layered postmodernist texts fusing elements of pop culture and esoteric philosophies while carrying conventions of the science fiction genre. Some critics relate his prose to the New Sincerity literary movement.

Victor Olegovich Pelevin was born in Moscow on 22 November 1962 to Zinaida Semenovna Efremova, an English teacher, and Oleg Anatolyevich Pelevin, a teacher at the military department of Bauman University.He lived on Tverskoy Boulevard in Moscow, later moving to Chertanovo. In 1979, Pelevin graduated from an elite high school with a special English program located on Stanislavskogo Street in the centre of Moscow, now Kaptsov Gymnasium №1520.

He then attended the Moscow Power Engineering Institute graduating with a degree in electromechanical engineering in 1985. In April of that year, MPEI Department of Electrical Transport hired him as engineer. Pelevin served in the Russian Air Force. From 1987 to 1989, Pelevin attended the MPEI graduate school.

Pelevin travels to Asia often, and has been to Nepal, South Korea, China and Japan. While he does not call himself a Buddhist, he is engaged in Buddhist practices. Pelevin has repeatedly said that despite the fact that his characters use drugs, he is not an addict even though he has experimented with mind-expanding substances in his youth. Pelevin is not married.

In December 2018, the media reported that the writer Victor Pelevin registered in the register of individual entrepreneurs in the territorial office of the Pension Fund in Moscow.