Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

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What can be said about this book that has not been said before? Then again, art is derivative, and though I'm dangerously stretching the definition of art by applying it to my reviews, let me launch ahead and just say what everyone else has said...

Read this book because it is fantastic.

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart is a surprising book because, much as it is marketed as a satire and therefore expected to be funny, what strikes me most of all is its drama and humanity. And those two things are not funny but just plain heartbreaking. So I guess the title didn't lie.

Shteyngart's novel is set in a not-too-distant future where social networking and the interweb is taken to its unrestrained frontier--everyone communicates via their apparat (something like an iPhone, I guess, but much smaller and more powerful). To be honest, I couldn't picture what the apparat looked like, but its described as something you can wear on your neck, with a smooth cylindrical surface and very few, if at all, buttons. Cutting edge of design, huh? The apparats are used for everything: communication, retail, and, most especially, rating and ranking people according to their attractiveness, fuckability, and credit risk. Something like checking blog stats, but for people. Oh, people also use the apparats to video their lives, complete with commentary, and post it online. Think vlogs gone wild. In the midst, or perhaps because of, this substitution of personal contact with technology, the US is in the brink of meltdown like you wouldn't believe. The dollar is worthless and must be pegged to the Chinese yuan. Moreover, America has become a sort of militaristic state, and monitoring is easy for "the man" since everything is online anyway. I'd call it speculative fiction, but it all seems so horribly near, so I'm not sure how much Shteyngart had to "speculate."

If I've spent a long paragraph detailing the setting, it's because the setting is crucial to the story of two people--a middle-aged, unattractive man of Russian descent and a twenty-something, thoroughly modern girl of Korean descent--who, against all logic, fall in love. I say against all logic, not even within the story, but even for the reader. Seriously, what made Lenny and Eunice fall in love? Was it the desperation of the time? Was it the need for human connection, above all else? Regardless, it was a love I couldn't begrudge because, however unmatched they might seem, I thought their love was beautiful.

And they were beautiful. Lenny and Eunice, I mean. It doesn't matter that Lenny is physically unattractive and socially inept. The guy is a diarist, for Pete's sake, inspired by his boss who...
"has always told...staff to keep a diary, to remember who we were, because every moment our brains and synapses are being rebuilt and rewired with maddening disregard for our personalities, so that each year, each month, each day we transform into a different person, an utterly unfaithful iteration of our original selves, of the drooling kid in the sandbox."
Lenny tries to keep track of who he is--who he was--in his diary, in a world where so many changes are happening so fast. Moreover, he seems the last bastion of the analog, as one of my former professors likes to put it. He reads "bound, printed, nonstreaming media artifacts"--books, to us. And maybe because of that, Lenny is the only character that consistently displays compassion.

And Eunice? Initially, I was annoyed by her and her social media lifestyle. But when you read Eunice through her voice, my god, you see how real, how human she is.

In fact, Shteyngart's writing is gripping because of the surprising and beautiful shifts from lyrical prose to modern techno-speak, from the images and events that swing between unabashed consumerism and age-old human longing. And, it's damned funny, with lines such as...
"She was a touchstone of honest emotion, our Kelly. I took my turn petting her head and inhaling her. One day, if our race is to survive, we will have to figure out how to download her goodness and install it in our children."
So, it's funny and scary, but I leave you to find out if the love story really ends super sadly. That is, if you haven't read it yet. I promise you, it is well worth it. And if there is silence at the end, that is only because it is fitting. For, really, when you are faced with something beautiful, isn't silence a natural reaction?

Comments

Anonymous said…
It sounds very satiric, judging from the Title! Interesting book, and sounds very apt for this generation!
November 22, 2010 at 9:11 AM
fantaghiro23 said…
Hi, litstuff. It is satiric and very apt for this generation. Also, it's beautiful. Hope you get a chance to read it!
November 23, 2010 at 4:36 PM
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