“The Return of Bluebeard” is a new novel by Victor Pelevin. We do not recommend anyone to read it

We'll tell you why as briefly as possible.

Eksmo Publishing House has released a new novel by Victor Pelevin, “The Return of Bluebeard.” This book is not part of the Transhumanism Inc. series, which the writer has been working on in recent years. And yet, the novel, dedicated to the “monstrous moral decline of the world’s elites,” is qualitatively no different from his previous works. At Meduza’s request, the book was read by literary critic Alex Mesropov. He briefly tells you what awaits you if you decide to open it.

Note. This text describes the plot twists of "The Return of Bluebeard".

Victor Pelevin wrote a novel of 480 paper pages in just six months.

Its main character, the writer Konstantin Parakletovich Golgofsky, has already appeared in previous books . This time, after a series of mystical incidents, the character learns that he is the reincarnation of Marshal Gilles de Rais, the prototype of Bluebeard, an ally of Joan of Arc. In the 15th century he was executed, accused of brutal murders of children and relations with the devil.

The CIA, British elites and the Soviet-Israeli physicist Zhenya Epstein, who has learned to move consciousness in time, intervene in the fate of Golgotha. Under British influence, he takes his enterprise to “a small private island in the Virgin Islands,” where elite guests can now receive a special service—and travel through the body of child molester Gilles de Rais. So Zhenya Epstein gradually turns into a “financial schemer from the island of pedophiles” named Jeffrey.

Golgotha ​​will learn about all this. He even eventually ends up in Epstein's body in his prison cell at the moment of his suicide. The main character becomes a bridge between Gilles de Rais and Jeffrey Epstein - between the old Bluebeard myth and its modern incarnation.

Then Golgotha ​​opens his eyes and learns that he has experienced a revelation. Which one exactly? The same as always with Pelevin: the world cannot be corrected, and man can only hope for his own mystical liberation.

This novel makes an even worse impression than the previous one . If you remove Pelevin's name from the cover and substitute the name of any unknown author of second-rate prose there, many readers will not notice the substitution.

Degradation of style, pretentiousness, juggling with outdated memes, self-repetition and poisonous jabs at critics and competing writers - everything is as usual in the late Pelevin. All that remains of the once original writer is an irritating brand, exploited by a corporation in crisis .

You don't need to read The Return of Bluebeard.

Alex Mesropov