The Sacred Book of the Werewolf

By: Victor Pelevin

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

A. Huli, beautiful and curiously foxlike, has the appearance of a luscious 14-year-old girl, the mind of a sly Buddhist monk, and an endearing habit of name-dropping all the famous people she's met over the past 2,000 years. She works as a classy prostitute in Moscow's premier hotels, until one client goes inexplicably and fatally berserk at the sight of her and she has to leave in a hurry.

Forced to advertise on the Internet, she comes to the attention of an intelligence officer who also happens to be a werewolf.

Victor Pelevin's new work of fiction is both a supernatural love story and an outrageously funny satirical portrait of modern Russia. With all his characteristic humor and metaphysical ambition, Pelevin introduces us to an unforgettable cast of perverts, former KGB agents, oil tycoons, and amorous werewolves.

Translated by Andrew Bromfield.

©2005 Victor Pelvin; 2008 Andrew Bromfield (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Strange, frenetic and beguiling....Victor Pelevin (is) one of the most exciting writers to emerge from new Russia." ( The Guardian, London)
"Full of tour de force passages, and full of sex, the novel yet succeeds in not being one of those showy, sexy, cold-hearted books. The fantasy is fueled by passion, the humor by grief." (Ursula K. Le Guin)
"Pelevin belongs to one strand of the great Russian tradition that goes back as far as Gogol and Dostoevesky, in which metaphysical locutions about the mystery of existence clash with the grotesque banalities of life as it is actually lived." ( New York Times Book Review)

Victor Pelevin has written better books than this.

The problem with this book ISN'T that people want a titillating fantasy story and got a long philosophical text instead, those people are just uninformed consumers and their opinions are garbage. Do a quick Google search before you make a purchase, how hard can that be?

The problem with this book is that everything is delivered from the narrator's perspective, and Pelevin indulges far, FAR too much exposition and philosophizing. Having the narrator go on tangents explaining the rules of these fantasy creatures, or over-philosophizing about Daoist concepts gets obnoxious fast, in the way he writes the narrator's conversational voice addressing the audience. As far as my disappointment with the book, a quick bout of research on Google shows that this book is somehow well liked amongst people that like Pelevin, which I find baffling.

Homo Zapiens is better.

If possible, Audible needs to produce an audiobook of Homo Zapiens or Omon Ra, etc. I would enjoy those in a heartbeat.

Cassandra Campbell was alright, I have no intention to criticize her work. She seems to have played to the text exceptionally well, but I don't like the text so it's hard to separate her work as a narrator and be completely fair.

boring

very slow, cliched, I tried to lision to it but had to give up after 3 hr. It was missing so much to give it life.

Entertaining but to what end?

It's really interesting to see what people in other countries are reading. I realize we get a skewed perception because of what gets selected to market outside the home country. But what else can you do? It's also interesting when that foreign book taps into genres and themes already popular in the US. The trend of stories dealing with supernatural creatures coexisting with humans seems to be running rampant. But where did it originate? Is it all just part of a larger zeitgeist? And what does it all mean? In this book, I always felt there were a lot of in-references that I would have understood better if I'd been Russian. At the same time, I felt like I was being treated to a more intimate idea of what contemporary Russia is like than I would get from the news or any non-fiction analysis. It's a good story with intriguing characters. Pelevin has a great imagination and he has worked out a lot of details to make his parallel universe work.

I can’t deal with that awful fake Russian accent

This Russian accent that the narrator is doing is terrible, distracting and completely unnecessary. Ruins the whole experience.

A disjointed fever dream of absurdity and personal philosophy

Guys, I was lured in by the promised story of a werewolf and werefox romantic story……what I got was an absolute ridiculous experience with 70% of the novel being long side tangents of the author’s personal take on philosophy and very little actual story, and the philosophy wasn’t especially good or new, but the usual way of men retelling of pre established statements in a slightly different wording and thinking they have created new and enlightening content of their own that men do and expect to be praised for.

The book is littered with absurdly disgusting views of Islam phobia, homophobia, misogyny, Russian right wing views, pedophilia, rape fetish, and an obsession with butt holes….yes I’m not joking. But the part that makes it even more absurd is that the author included the opposite views to some of these views leading me to think this book is an example of the internal struggle the author has in himself.

He speaks of a trans woman in the beginning of the book with more respect and normalcy than I expected of an older Russian book. This ally ship is all the more perplexing because of the pure hate and vitriol spoken of queer men later on and throughout the book. The constant mentioning of anal sex and ass holes and asshole imagery leads me to believe the author is a closeted woman who has been taught to hate herself from Russian society. I also believe the main character is a self insert because most the philosophical ramblings are done in her head as well as the fact she lacks a vagina but instead has a lubricated hole at the base of her tail, once again we are at anal…..

And the “love story” is just a dis functional argument between the macho Russian man he has been taught to be and the queer accepting woman the author wants to be. The wolf hardly even shows the fox actual healthy love and support and even leaves her for being much older than him and not the 17 year old child he thought she was. So it’s even more disgusting.

It was a flaming train wreck I couldn’t stop watching and frequently doubled over in laughter from the pure and uncomfortable absurdity toted as a love story.

There is also no plot, so little plot happens and is so underwhelming that it is probably only 3-4 hours worth of the entire reading, Wich is sad because there could have been a fun premise here. The book also seems to think is some literary work of art when it’s nothing more than less of a shitty detective novel the author speaks so lowly of, and all the more hypocritical than the hypocrisy they detests so much.

The only reason I would ever subject anyone else to this is so we can talk and laugh about how truly bad this is.

Nothing happens...

There weren't any reviews when I added this book to my wishlist and I wish I had gone back to check them before I wasted a credit on this book. I made it through Part I (admittedly fast forwarding here and there) waiting for something to happen and was completely disappointed. The book description has so much potential and disappoints so dramatically. If you are into philosophical meandering ad nauseum, this book is for you. If you are into action, there isn't any.

SLOWWW

OMG this was a slow boring book. Come on werefox prostitue that has so much promise. I admit i didnt finish it, i just couldnt lose that much of my life to this book.

a waste

Poor, elementry storyline. I was not impressed; felt I wasted my time thinking it would get better-- it didn't.

Nonsense!

This book is filled with insufferable nonsense.
Unless you are prepared to listen to hours of droning about metaphysical mysticism and far-fetched allegorical stories, I wouldn't recommend it.

It's not often I abandon a book before finishing it, but in this case I couldn't bear to listen anymore.

okokok people

if you're looking for a bodice ripping, two-dimensional, paranormal romance with vampiric and lycanthropic sex, you've come to the wrong place.
this book was frigging awesome. and because some short-sided reviewers chose to bash it, less and less people will try it. that really bums me out.

the narrator was brilliant. i wouldn't call the story's progression slow, i'd call it gradual. and i wouldn't call it boring. just because a novel doesn't give you what you want doesn't mean it isn't good. Hamilton and Feehan fans may be expecting a smaller calibar of novel. THIS IS NOT PELEVIN'S FAULT.

this novel has some fantasy elements but they exist to tilt the earth off-center a bit, not to generate an entire fanciful universe. its more surrealistic than science fiction, to a purpose other than simple diversion. Pelevin's story has a point. it's a socio-political commentary on post-soviet russia...with werewolves, werefoxes, and taoist immortals. i'd tell you more, but i dont want to ruin it (for those who are brave enough and sharp enough to try it out despite other negative, unfair assessments).

frankly, i loved it.