Various, delightful, and uncategorizable, the stories are highly addictive. Pelevin here, as in The Yellow Arrow (New Directions, 1996), Omon Ra (ND, 1997), and A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia (ND, 1998), pays great attention to the meaning of life, in earnest and as spoof. In the title story, kids in a Pioneer-camp tell terrifying bedtime stories; in "Hermits and Six-Toes," two chickens are obsessed with the nature of the universe as viewed from their poultry plant; the young communist-league activists of "Mid-Game" change their sex to become hard-currency prostitutes; and "The Life and Adventures of Shed Number XII" is the story of a storage hut whose dream is to become a bicycle.

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