Everything Has Its LimitsDear Jerry, I've never visited your former country, though my grandparents did manage to escape the sour smell of its herring and poverty for the streets of America which smelled of ___________ [fill in your own description, you're better at it than I am]. Still, I've spent the last twenty-six years working with other, newer escapees. You've definitely got your thumb (or some other part) on the pulse of Russian Jews and no doubt on the Russian new rich class too. I'd lik...

Never judge a book by its title, but you can bet that a novel called Absurdistan is not going to be subtle or take things seriously. And Gary Shteyngart's second novel is pretty much what you'd expect from the title: a broad satire on the current geopolitical scene. Mr. Shteyngart, who was born in what was then Leningrad and came to the United States at the age of 7, made a well-received debut four years ago with The Russian Debutante's Handbook, a bumptious and bawdy look at expatriate Russians...

I was given this as a gift by my brother's ex-girlfriend a year and a half ago. I think my guilt over not reading it before now made me persevere. Somehow I finished the book, despite being equally repulsed and bored by it. I really did appreciate Shteyngart's use of language, which is why I have opted for two stars rather than one. I know that this is classified as a satire, but I felt that Shteyngart was making his characters such irritating cliches that I wanted to commit violent acts against...

According to the New York Times, this is one of the ten best books of the year. What a sad year for literature was 2007!I wanted very much to like this, and there were moments when I smiled at a phrase or passage or even a bit of biting satire, but over-all this was nothing more than literary masturbation ... an author trying to show off how clever he is rather than actually engaging a reader in a story. And, quite frankly, the story doesn't even begin until nearly a third of the way into the bo...

This disaster of a book is as senselessly profane as it is painful to read. While surely some measure of artistry was necessary to have stretched such an uninspired satire into 333-pages of filth, only a true dullard would find occasion to be impressed. Shteyngart's aptly titled story of Absurdistan is told from the perspective of a morbidly obese pig-man who possesses the intellect of a lobotomized chihuahua. This vacuous ogre of a protagonist, Misha Vainberg, dawdles away life by lavishing ove...

Good political and social satire makes you look at the world a little differently, with some laughs along the way. This did not. For the life of me, I can't figure out why this book got such critical acclaim. The humor was cheap and obvious (although sometimes actually funny) and I couldn't help feeling like Shteyngart robbed his main character from A Confederacy of Dunces, only without the keen ability to actually develop the character like Toole had (RIP). The most annoying part was that Shtey...

(Almost) non-stop brilliant. I was skeptical at first because I thought he was going to be an over-hyped "satirical" Gen-Xer kinda thing. I figured it would be good and everything, but when the blurbs on the back seem to hyperventilate I get antsy.Nope! Wrong again! This thing pulled me in by the ears and I haven't been the same since.His satire is raucous, raw, witty, considered, cosmopolitan, and takes on all comers. Dopey liberals (like myself) and sinister corporate Conservative conglomerate...

Fat Russian explores the Middle East a la Confederacy of Dunces, except not quite as charming and a bit more overbearing. Bits with Brooklyn fling quite comical; most other parts too heavy-handed to be laughable.

This was a really odd book. “Absurdistan” is about Misha Vainberg, a big, fat, spoiled Russian in his late 20s who is trapped in Russia. He’s stuck there with his girlfriend Rouenna, a largish black stripper from Harlem and his best friend Alyosha-Bob who isn’t Russian but kind of pretends to be. Misha yearns to go back to the US where he attended Accidental College and had himself a botched circumcision. He’s trapped in Russia because his father, who is now dead, killed an Oklahoman man and no

Rarely have I read a book where the novel itself so much resembles its primary character. Absurdistan is the story of Misha Vainberg, a morbidly obese, puerile, self-loathing, genital-obsessed, bloated man-child. Most of those descriptions can be applied to Absurdistan, too. Misha is the son of modern-day Russian privilege, holder of a fortune handed down from his refusenik-turned-gangster father. He went to an American college, he's obsessed with hiphop culture and smitten with his Bronx girlfr...

Absurdistan is a few different novels at once. Along the way Gary Shteyngart uses sex, drugs, and violence to present constant dicotomies of pleasure and pain, and hope and despair. There are quite a few sex scenes that are kinky in a humorous and even strangely endearing way. And then there is sex that is the sort only offered or taken part in because of desperation and despair. These moments are nauseating. There is a very entertaining drug scene in which the protagonist, Vainberg, is very hi

I finished this book only because I paid full price for it. It was not funny and the self-absorption of the main character, Misha, was tiresome to say the least. Repetitious sex, gluttonous eating and lame political satire do not make a funny book. I hated this book, and feel absurd for having read the entire thing. Maybe I missed the point, some political and cultural satire, but I cannot believe its cover blurbs that cite so many newspapers naming it among their top ten books of the year.

This struggles only in how it starts and how it ends. Now I don't need a bow, ribbon, road signs, and a pat on the head when I read, but he soapboxed his way through this allegory, and it needed something firmer coming out the other side. It blurs at the edges and you're left nowhere when you spent all this time grounded in a very specific, real "somewhere." If you put in all that effort to bring us with you, keeping us tightly wrapped in this "Iraq" stand-in, you can't just let us drop into a v...

If you were ever wondering what the difference was between a novel that is well written and a novel that is fun to read, you could begin your study with Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan.(Or Heart of Darkness, for that matter.)Don't get me wrong, I can see what The New York Times is gushing about. Unfortunately, seeing it and feeling it are two different things. Sadly, for me, it is very rarely when I am in the mood to read a satire that is as dedicated to its cleverness as Absurdistan. Although I r...

Read this one on the strength of several great reviews...and learned never to read a book simply on the strength of several great reviews. Not poorly written, but the author's attempts at self-deprecating humor came across as more self-indulgent than anything else. The main character (an obvious riff on Ignatius Reilly) never gained my sympathy as a reader despite Shteyngart's best intentions. Overall, it simply didn't sit well with me and stopped being fun to read after the first 100 pages or s...

"Absurdistan" is a very self-aware book. This hybrid of "A Confederacy of Dunces" and "Fight Club" the book is calculated and scathing in its language. With one swipe, Gary Shteyngart brings hipsters, academics, politicians, MBAs, history and consumerism to a palatable middle-brow level. Which is just where the 300 pound anti-hero Misha needs them to be.At its best "Absurdistan" is clever to the nth degree. Misha sees the world as it is, stripped of marketing gimmicks to the often ugly misogynis...

This is laugh-out-loud hilarious, by which I mean that it literally caused me to guffaw audibly in public. Second novels are often disappointing, but this one was insightful, incisive, and timely. Shteyngart skewers just about every ethnic group and political ideology in this whirlwind farce, and it's impossible to put down. A great airplane read, and the short chapters also make it suitable for a subway commute.I will say this, though -- I love to read about food, and the gourmand on these page...

When I began reading this book, I was very skeptical with regards to how much I was going to like it. But here I am, giving a four star rating, because this has been one of the most absurd, yet funny, rides I've been on in a long time. If anyone here read my review on "The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed out of his Window" (or something along those lines, I haven't checked the title of that work in a long time), you will know that I am definitely not a big fan of absurd literature in its most a...

Gary Shteyngarts's Absurdistan is very clever, and has some very funny moments. Misha Vainberg reminded me somewhat of Ignatius Reilly, from Confederacy of Dunces...anyway, this was interesting, engaging, and funny. A good one to finish on April Fools' Day...

I must first say that I just hate reviewing books that I have given 1 star ratings. I know some reviewers out there enjoy the scathing review. I, personally, just feel like it is yet another an imposition on my time by a novel that was not worth my time in the first place.That said, I think my least favorite piece of this novel (and that is saying a lot) is that it ends on 9/11/01. The main character is trying to get out of the Middle East and into NYC despite having been banned by INS and he en...