Chapaev and Nothingness

The novel "Chapaev and Nothingness" is characterized by the author as follows: "This is the first work in world literature whose action takes place in absolute nothingness." In fact, it takes place in 1919 in Chapaev's division, where the main character, the decadent poet Pyotr Nothingness, serves as a commissar. It also takes place in our days. And, as is always the case with Pelevin, in virtual space, where the main character meets Kawabata, Schwarzenegger, "just Maria"… According to critics, "Chapaev and Nothingness" is the "first serious Zen-Buddhist novel in Russian literature."