Super Sad True Love Story

by Gary Shteyngart

In the near future, America is crushed by a financial crisis and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess. Then Lenny Abramov, son of an Russian immigrant janitor and ardent fan of “printed, bound media artifacts” (aka books), meets Eunice Park, an impossibly cute Korean American woman with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness. Could falling in love redeem a planet falling apart?

(From Publisher).

Gary Shteyngart was born in Leningrad in 1972 and came to the United States seven years later. His debut novel, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, won the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. His second novel, Absurdistan, was named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, as well as a best book of the year by Time, The Washington Post Book World, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, and many other publications. He has been selected as one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, GQ, and Travel + Leisure and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in New York City.

This is a brilliantly written dystopian novel. It is a scary take on our social media future and asks where will all this "progression" take society. Smarter society or shallow society?

This is a book that not only shows the ebullient satiric gifts Shteyngart demonstrated in his debut, but that also uncovers his abilities to write deeply about love, loss and mortality.

Sad, satiric and clever, Shteyngart posits a not-too-distant future that feels like now. He observes the state of the world and wonders how we can retain our humanity amongst the mindless consumerism of the times.

In this novel set in the near future the whole world may be falling apart, but Lenny Abramov is still willing to believe that love will save the planet.