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Publication
Riverhead Books (2003), Edition: Reissue, 476 pages
Description
Best-selling author Gary Shteyngart’s exquisite fiction is met with a level of critical acclaim reserved for the very best in the field. In this startlingly provocative work, Russian immigrant Vladimir Girshkin searches for love and self-identity while interacting with a quirky set of acquaintances. “No novelist thinks more globally than Gary Shteyngart … (He) has figured out how to be funny and appalling at the same time, often in the same sentence.”—Baltimore Sun.
Media reviews
User reviews
LibraryThing member EBT1002
I just couldn't get into this. I'll work hard for a book that gets rave reviews, not for one that even the critics can't appreciate. I read about 100 pages and every time I picked it up, I found myself lost -- there was no thread there (for me). Laugh out loud? Methinks not.
LibraryThing member lizatoad
This is one of the few books that really lives up to all the reviewer hype. It is really hilarious. I found myself laughing out loud on every other page. Vladimir, the main character is sort of pathetic and lovable, you want him to do well, but also to grab him by the shoulders and shake him a bit
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while yelling 'grow up'! Although half way through the book, the story takes a turn for the really bizzar, Shteyngart manages to pull it off. Anyone from an immigrant family will appreciate this book. Or anyone with a Jewish mama... or anyone with a sense of humor in general! Show Less
LibraryThing member eaterofwords
Am I supposed to spend the course of the entire book hoping Vladimir gets offed by the mafia? If I am, the book's succeeding amply, but if not...
LibraryThing member memccauley6
Despite the unlikeable main character, I kept reading this to find out what would happen to the idiot Vladimir Girshkin next. This unusual coming-of-age tale follows our anti-hero from his underachieving life as a hipster wannabe in New York City to his try at a Ponzi scheme mastermind in Prava. He
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careens from one drunken encounter to the next, always trying to score with the prom queen, and the sexual scenes are decidedly not erotic. Shteyngart is a gifted writer and I frequently laughed out loud, but the story seemed bloated and repetitive, as the focus blurred in Prava, so did my attention. Show Less
LibraryThing member claudiabowman
This started out promisingly enough and the author has great style, but eventually it seemed to spin out into greater and greater absurdity.
LibraryThing member chocolatedog
This came strongly recommended by friends, but I just could not get into it. The protagonist is a contemporary Oblomov, which irks. It's not a horrible book, just didn't live up to its hype.
LibraryThing member rayski
A young New York raised Russian runs to Russia to hide from his mistakes in NY. In Russia he learns to con rich American students out of their parent’s money. His ego makes him believe he’s invisible but learns the hard way that he’s not.
LibraryThing member shawnd
This was a fun read. I enjoy reading Russian authors and that regional culture. So that was fun. It's a light and fast read. Follows the strivings of a young Jewish immigrant with successful, driven Mother, as he builds his fortune. However, the guy is totally contemporary. So it's kind of like
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Bret Easton Ellis meets Henry James. Lots of gangster fun, drama, and the writing was super for me. I spoke to an Azerbaijani who lived for a while in Moscow and he said it was totally unrealistic. Show Less
LibraryThing member KApplebaum
Someone recommended this book to me, but I'll be darned if I remember who. Good read for when you're in the mood for a novel.
LibraryThing member fieldnotes
Shteyngart reminds me of Michael Chabon or Jonathon Safron Foer, which isn't good. These authors are passably clever, very up to date, committed to including only comic-booklike characters in their improbable retro chic plots and, I think, tiresome. I find that their stories have a solid amount of
(I should add that I appreciate Shteyngart's lack of earnestness, especially when dealing with his concentration camp visit; it was a very deliberate rejection of manipulative victim prose and, when juxtaposed with the more modern threat of occasional jack-ass skinheads, it was rather effective.)
However, and in general, and finally, making fun of hipsters, and trust-fund babies, and fat girls and euro-trash is easy and useless. If I wasn't stuck on a very long bus ride, I'm not sure I would've made it through.
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momentum . . . until you put them down.(I should add that I appreciate Shteyngart's lack of earnestness, especially when dealing with his concentration camp visit; it was a very deliberate rejection of manipulative victim prose and, when juxtaposed with the more modern threat of occasional jack-ass skinheads, it was rather effective.)
However, and in general, and finally, making fun of hipsters, and trust-fund babies, and fat girls and euro-trash is easy and useless. If I wasn't stuck on a very long bus ride, I'm not sure I would've made it through.
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LibraryThing member daddyofattyo
Having been born in Russia, and have come to the U.S. at the age of 13, and now living in Los Angeles' 'Little Russia' this book was so spot-on and hilarious with descriptions of Russians and Russian Americans and the whole experience of growing up Russian in America. It was like recognizing many
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characters in my life on the pages of this book. Wickedly funny. Show Less
LibraryThing member fist
Having previously read Steyngart's other novel "Absurdistan", I recognised the themes of a Soviet-born narrator observing the turbulent change to capitalism of a peripheral formerly communist country. This novel is lighter and more likeable than Absurdistan, but has more structural problems. There
I enjoyed the humor, the similes and many insightful observations of how immigrants can be divided into A-types and B-types, or how the cornerstones of Soviet society are cruelty, anger, vindictiveness and humiliation. In the second half of the book, there's less of this, as the story becomes more action-paced and needs to be packed up (but even so the author regularly needs a deus ex machina to do so). The female characters are crudely drawn and puzzled me: what was the function of the Francesca character in New York, or of the Frantisek character in Prava, and is it a coincidence that their names are identical? (Frantisek is Czech for Francesco).
Finally, I have an objection about the title. In the book, the word "debutant" is mentioned for the male, Russian narrator's predicament. No female Russian characters (apart from the aforementioned mother and grandmother) are mentioned. It is again puzzling that in the title this has been changed into the female version of the word, and with a misleading cover photo for some editions at that. It's a book about many things, almost too many even, but certainly not about Russian debutantes.
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is simply too much material here for one novel, and one feels that the author had trouble tying it all together. The first part in New York is hardly necessary for the novel, and feels like it was added afterwards to raise the page count and to provide a (rather implausable) explanation for how the protagonist finds himself on his mission in Prava. And throughout there is a running commentary on being Jewish and on the Russian soul, with Mother Russia exemplified by the protagonist's female ancestors: his grandma symbolising the Soviet pioneer period, and his mother the second half of the 20th century, while the male Russians represent all that's bad with the country.I enjoyed the humor, the similes and many insightful observations of how immigrants can be divided into A-types and B-types, or how the cornerstones of Soviet society are cruelty, anger, vindictiveness and humiliation. In the second half of the book, there's less of this, as the story becomes more action-paced and needs to be packed up (but even so the author regularly needs a deus ex machina to do so). The female characters are crudely drawn and puzzled me: what was the function of the Francesca character in New York, or of the Frantisek character in Prava, and is it a coincidence that their names are identical? (Frantisek is Czech for Francesco).
Finally, I have an objection about the title. In the book, the word "debutant" is mentioned for the male, Russian narrator's predicament. No female Russian characters (apart from the aforementioned mother and grandmother) are mentioned. It is again puzzling that in the title this has been changed into the female version of the word, and with a misleading cover photo for some editions at that. It's a book about many things, almost too many even, but certainly not about Russian debutantes.
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LibraryThing member emilyingreen
In his usual wry fashion, Gary Shteyngart delivers a captivating transcontinental adventure filled to the brim with his unique blend of sardonic and self-deprecating wit. Giving a detailed and often hilarious depiction of immigrants and expatriates, with a few solid jabs at privileged Americans,
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Shteyngart is at the height of his powers as postmodern provocateur. Show Less
LibraryThing member reluctantm
What is the purpose of the whole first half of the book, the part set in New York? Nothing really happens until he goes to Prava, and even then, what happens is just a random collection of musings on former Soviet biznesmen and wealthy yet dim ex-pats. There are echoes of say, Bulgakov, in the
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second half, but by then I had trouble keeping focused and just rushed through to the end because I felt bad on giving up on the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member anitatally
I did not care for this book.
Subjects
Awards
National Jewish Book Award (Winner — Fiction — 2003)
Notable Books List (2003)
The Great American Novels (2002)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2003
Physical description
476 p.; 5.1 inches
ISBN
1573229881 / 9781573229883
Local notes
2005-06 Reading Circle selection