"The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin" by Pyotr Demianovich Ouspensky

His name is Pyotr, not Peter.  Let's get that straight first.  No need to anglicize every foreign name out there, especially not European ones.  A little foreign languages study goes a long way.

"The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin" is largely biographical and the main theme is Nietzsche's idea of Eternal Recurrence, exposed in several of his writings.  However, Ouspensky wrote the original Russian version in 1915, after he met Gurdjieff (the Magician), and the novel reflects that, as the idea of Eternal Recurrence is modified to include only "two or three, or in any case a few" lives, after the person learns about the idea.   Nietzsche's concept is also modified by Ouspensky in the sense that each 'recurrence' is not completely identical to the previous one, but they can be different, and it is postulated that each following one is worse than the previous one, because the person has less and less chances to change anything in each subsequent incarnation.

Aside from young Ouspensky's pussy chasing (and he's not doing bad at all!), the book emphasizes the point from the Gurdjieff's system that "a man cannot do" that is, one cannot change anything, even if one knows what one wants to change and even if one remembers all the things as they were before.  Ouspensky writes that from a far things look clear and obvious, but once one is surrounded by the circumstances and details - things just happen mechanically of themselves, exactly in the way they happened before.

At the end of the book Osokin is offered a deal by the Magician, in exchange for 15-20 years of his life and service, the Magician will help Osokin learn and know how to change himself, but young Osokin doesn't trust him and is still more concerned about the latest hot pussy running away from his clutches. 

We all know how Ouspensky's life turned out later and his love of pussy was replaced by love of whiskey and vodka (sometimes together), however that does not prevent him from being one of the most clear-minded, clear language expositors of both Gurdjieff's and his own ideas in writing.