October 28, 2008

{     The Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin     }    

The Sacred Book of the Werewolf follows the life and mind of a completely gorgeous prostitute named A Hu-Li, a werefox whose primary means of sustenance is the sexual energy of men whom she hypnotizes with her red haired tail into thinking they are having the best sex of their lives while she drains them.

In spite of this A Hu-Li is concerned largely with the nature of perception and spiritual transcendence as she leads the reader from situation to situation through a dialogue that touches on literature, philosophy, contemporary Russian politics, history, morality and religion.

While discussing all this in brilliantly expository conversations with an ensemble of KGB werewolves, occultists, wealthy Johns, Zen masters and other werefoxes, she inches toward her goal of finding the elusive Super Werewolf. Not just a messianic being, the super werewolf turns out to be a spiritual path that leads her and others like her through love to werefox nirvana. (Would that technically be called "Werevana"? Hmmm...)

This is a tale whose wicked horror/fantasy shell is cracked into a million bits and put back together by an expansive conceptual exchange that is at once marvelously intelligent, touching, and uniquely witty.