It fits in well with the book, which is, as you said, hard to pin down. If you liked this book at all I would recommend going on to his Generation P or Empire V or The Holy Book of the Werewolf. Of the three, I think the first mentioned was the best, but my wife likes the third best. I think Generation P is probably his best book, but Chapaev and Pustota is probably the one that generates the most discussion and requires the least cultural grounding in modern Russian society (don't even get me started on Empire V - unless you have spent an appreciable amount of time living in Moscow you just won't get it, period - it's a social commentary/satire on the insanity that is current Moscow society and I really can't even describe that).