THE INVITATION

A subtle and disturbing evocation of post-glasnost Russia by Nobel-winner and nouveau romancier Simon. A group of 15 international guests and their interpreters are taken from one staged event to another: the Bolshoi Ballet, Lake Baikal, a new city in Central Asia, and an ancient monastery. Ostensibly invited to offer their views on peace in the 2lst century, they travel around in sealed cars and planes to each carefully orchestrated event, where they meet with the Secretary- General—a man who wants to persuade the rest of the world ``that it was possible that a fairly normal man could have followed a succession of bandits,'' though he remained a leader who ``could not only destroy half the world but still order a corporal to put out the lights in a police station where there was nothing more to see than a yellow wall.'' The guests are barely disguised versions of those who accompanied Simon himself on a trip to Russia in 1986, and it's part of the fun here to guess who they might be because the hints are heavy: the Russian-born actor who played Nero in an epic movie; the American playwright once married to the most beautiful woman in the world; and a black painter/general. Typically, there is no true narrative, only an accumulation of details and observations that together describe a totalitarian society—one built on the deaths of millions and still in thrall to that past. And glasnost itself is as empty of meaning as all the words ``scratched out or scribbled'' at these meetings. Language and style are all for Simon, but the long convoluted sentences he favors are particularly effective in this quiet but devastating satire of totalitarianism made over for popular consumption. Close reading, but worth it.