Russian novelist Victor Pelevin is rapidly establishing himself as one of the most brilliant young writers at work today. His comic inventiveness and mind-bending talent prompted magazine to proclaim him a "Psychedelic n...Russian novelist Victor Pelevin is rapidly establishing himself as one of the most brilliant young writers at work today. His comic inventiveness and mind-bending talent prompted magazine to proclaim him a "Psychedelic nabokov for the cyber-age." In his third novel, pelevin has created an intellectually dazzling tale about identity and Russian history, as well as a spectacular elaboration of buddhist philosophy.