Absurdistan: A Novel

The book is not without merit, and as pulp fiction goes is fairly well written. The characters are believable, in their cartoonish way, and the plot is thick with action.

The inevitable comparison with "Confederacy of Dunces" shows how different these books are. Where Toole uses a hot dog cart, Shteyngart calls on Haliburton, graphic sex, mass murder and heavy stereotyping. The beauty of Toole's world is Ignatius's hilarious aplomb, his inability of being anyone but himself. He and the main characters make up their world out of their colorful disposition.

"Absurdistan", on the other hand, is constructed of labels ("Jew", "Haliburton" or "New York" are expected to impress by their very appearance on the page). The book has its moments of elegance, but overall relies on labels to bedazzle. The supersized Misha lives in the world of supersized words, supersized images and supersized events, all of which left me feeling supersized.

Sometimes the 2nd novel is a let-down. ABSURDISTAN follows a debut, THE RUSSIAN DEBUTANTE'S HANDBOOK that is frankly, hard to top. Shteyngart has done it. ABSURDISTAN is the story of Misha Vainberg aka "Snack Daddy." The son of a Jewish Russian Gangster, "Snack" got an education at a ritzy private American college called Accidental, kind of a cross between Antioch and Oberlin. After his father assassinates a competitor, a guy from Oklahoma, "Snack Daddy" is unable to obtain a visa to return from Russia to his beloved New York. His girlfriend is back in New York and Misha finds out that she is being seduced by one of his former classmates, a Professor Shteynfarb. Misha is determined to find a way back to America. He heads to Absurdistan, an oil-rich former Soviet republic on the Caspian. From his perch in the penthouse of the Hyatt Snack Daddy watches the country dissolve into civil war. All he wants is a Belgian passport and his next meal. ABSURDISTAN is a comic farce and a tour de force. I laughed my way through it.

It is difficult to be sympathetic sometimes towards Steyngart's hero Misha, a 325 pound millionnaire with a sexual hunger that rivals his appetite for food, alcohol and tranquilizers. Misha, the narrator, is also obsessed with all kinds of bodily emissions and their olefactory consequences - need I elaborate?

However, the story is a farcical rendition of the capitalist plays around oil, both from the multinational conglomerates converging on Absurdistan to the internal rulers who fuel ethnic conflicts for profit. It helped me look at the conflicts going on the world today from a different perspective.

The most intriguing part of the book is how Steyngart pokes fun at well known brand names in today's business world without getting sued. Steyngart even creates a rather despicable fictional alter-ego of himself to take a pot-shot at. Perhaps there is a legal allowance for farce. Or Steyngart's depictions are taking place elsewhere in the world today that they cannot be denied in court.

The narrative style is conversational, spontaneous and very humorous. In the end, big Misha, dolling out cash at random to those less fortunate than him, also demonstrates an overlarge heart and boundless generosity towards humanity - his redemption in Steyngart's screwed up world of Absurdistan.
[...]

...if you have a taste for anti-heroes, absurdism, satire, and scorched-earth, pitch-black comedy. Most of the negative reviews of this book here on the store are by people who clearly do NOT have such tastes, simplistic and philistine readers whose top criteria for literary praise appear to be sympathetic protagonists and uplifting moral messages---in short, the quasi-literate high-school-level readers who have no business being anywhere near a book of this caliber.

This is my first exposure to Gary Shteyngart and it will not be my last. There is an effortless and endless richness of language and imagination, with a sharp and fearless eye for irony and hypocrisy, fueled by a disgust with sloth and injustice that is expressed through ruthless satire. The author manages to include enough contemporary pop-cultural references to be non-academic, fresh and relevant, without getting too silly about it.

Like the large majority of comedic works, whether in film or novel form, Absurdistan is strongest in its first half, then meanders and bogs down during the second half. However it does not cop out or collapse entirely at the end, and is still quite enjoyable all the way through. But the first 100 pages or so are amazing.

'Absurdistan' is the type of book that leaves you wondering, "What was the point of that?" Initially drawing me to this book was the title- 'Absurdistan' (you gotta love a book that loudly declares itself absurd) -and it was- right from the beginning. Gary Shteyngart gives you moments of complete and total hilarity and ridiculousness, and you can see that he is acutely aware of the human condition. He uses this to his full advantage in describing scenes and characters, but eventually, it all dissolves into one big mess with no cohesive plot.

To begin with, the main character, Misha Vainberg, is a morbidly obese Russian whose father was the 1,238th richest man in Russia. Misha is absolutely obsessed with eating, and the descriptions of Misha taking a meal are nothing less than repulsive. Misha finds himself in all sorts of situations that, although they are not supposed to be funny, are made so by his sarcasm and self-deprecating observations. His comical meanderings through life include an unfriendly circumcision when he is already an adult, attending "Accidental College" in the US, and meeting the love of his life, Rouenna, who is a rough-edged, Bronx, ghetto-chick, with a flair for commentary and a love for her 325 pound "bobo" (Misha). It is this love for Rouenna that blankets Misha's entire life (and the book) with a sense of longing and sadness, as he cannot leave Russia to return to her in the US. To facilitate leaving Russia, Misha conjures many bizzare plans, and his life devolves into a comedy of errors, missteps and mishaps.

Throughout `Absurdistan', Gary Shteyngart inserts political musings in the form of Halliburton and Iraq references, and his ability to take American colloquialisms and turn them into bits of farce is fantastic. Throughout his trials and tribulations, we get Misha-isms (he refers to his hands as "big squishies") which open a window into his soul as a self-loathing and emotional wreck of a guy. All told, Misha and the other characters are very well-developed in their bizarre way, and you really do feel for them. As the story goes on, however, the plot sort of dissolves, and by the end, there really is no plot. At the conclusion, you're left holding a bag of absurd references, going, "What just happened?" It's worth reading if only for the amazing and wry insight Gary Shteyngart has concerning his home country (Russia), his current country (the US), and people in general. It's an interesting combination of farce and irony, yet it sort of leaves you going, hmmmmm?

Since Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan landed on many "Best Of" lists, I thought that this novel might be free of the curse so many writers face after penning acclaimed first novels. I'm still not quite sure... While the premise behind Absurdistan is intriguing and brilliant, I feel that the plot doesn't quite live up to its promise or possibility. The protagonist, Misha Vainberg, is a large man in a number of ways- He has a big bank account, appetite, and heart. He becomes, because of his dead father's actions, a prisoner of his own desires and cannot return to his beloved New York City and to his American girlfriend, Rouenna. He gets caught up in an "absurd" ethnic war in the fictional oil-rich country of Absurdistan, which causes him to lose hope (and some weight). Here's where the book loses me- The plot becomes too serious to be a true satire. Perhaps this is the author's intent, but I began comparing the fictional events in the novel to those happening in the world today. The result? All seem equally absurd.

Shteynhart's Absurdistan will not fail to serve its primary purpose: to make you laugh. What it will fail to do is provide characters and conflicts that stretch beyond the limitations of the story's basic idea. The novel's protagonist (though it is hard to wish him well) is Misha Vainberg, a 30-year old Russian native whose actions and ability to disgust are reminiscent of Ignatius Reilly, the similarly grotesque and obese hero of John Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. Although Misha is repulsive, he is also self-pitying, and through his travels in St. Petersburg, memories of New York City, and eventually, his arrival in the wonderful anti-utopia that is "Absurdistan", it is hard not to get attached to the character that repulsed you initially.

Shteynhart's one saving grace is his ability to keep us laughing through comedy not limited to the grotesque. In addition to being gross, Shteynhart also has an ability to be forgivably racist, sexist, and at times, socially and politically in-tuned. The simple creation of Absurtistan, a quasi-nation filled with people living solely for themselves, is a rather witty take on the distinction between America and Russia as a nation and as a nationality. But while Shteynhart's comedy is far from limited, his ability to tell a story is. Misha's journeys take him on rides through his past, mostly reliving the life he is trying to escape, that of his father's. Shteynhart attempts to get the reader to forgive Misha's shortcomings by spending an increasing amount of time on his father's misdoings--a method I could not help but feel was anything but an evasive literary technique. In the end, Misha eventually finds solace in "places you least expect" including hip-hop, love, and underdogs of the social classes.

The main problem here is that the novel ends in optimism through modern culture. An obese amoral foreigner seeks comfort in pop culture and the present day depiction of the lower class. While it is not difficult to allow your imagination to swallow this idea now, it will be very difficult to imagine in passing years. The main failing of Absurdistan is that its core purpose is limited to the boundaries of a generation. It is not farfetched to say that Absurdistan will fail to make a point in the future, and thus, will fade away. Nevertheless, Shteynhart seldom fails to make you laugh, and if that is the point you as a reader give to the novel, then it is worth the time.

Absurdistan is funny and sad in equal amounts for exactly the same reason.

The story is fantasy, so utterly preposterous it could never happen, and yet it remains so grounded in reality and garnished with such witty observations about international politics that it can be accepted as wholly credible. Misha Vainberg doesn't exist, the country of Absurdsvanï (Absurdistan) doesn't exist, and Vainberg's Keystone Kops adventures with American defense contractors and international politics never happened. That makes the story funny. However, people exactly like Misha Vainberg do exist, countries exactly like Absurdsvanï do exist, and (having first-hand experience with the first and reasonable knowledge of the second) I can assure you that American defense contracting and international politics operate pretty much exactly as they are portrayed in the novel. That is what makes the story sad.

Shteyngart's writing style is bold and brash; his pen equally humorous and caustic. He writes with biting sarcasm, grim observational skill and a rude crassness that will make even the most jaded and worldly reader chuckle at his graphic narration. He's at his best when lampooning/satirizing the very very serious: he makes the wry obersvation that the "American Express" logo is widely more respected and feared than the U.N. logo, and his concepts for a Holocaust museum are both horrifying and hilarious. There were several spots in the novel that reminded me of Vonnegut, both for their razor-sharp observations of the world at large and their despairing attitude towards the future of humanity. Shteyngart also weaves into the novel interesting threads dealing with father-son relationships, religious/cultural adaptation and rationalization, and (in true Vonnegut fashion) even writes a parody of himself into the novel.

The protagonist, the morbidly obese, pityingly naïve and fairly wealthy Misha Vainberg (son of the 1,238th-richest man in all of Russia!), seems equal parts Winston Smith and Don Quixote: he's desperate to "do something important" with both his life and his money and yet is also a powerless pawn swept up in the cultural and international events that surround him. He falls in love too easily (both with women and with ideas) and cares too much when no one around him cares at all. Far from being an uplifting, "Schindler's List" sort of story, Absurdistan shows just how powerless the invidual is (even a wealthy individual) when powerful companies and powerful countries hatch hare-brained schemes in the utterly absurd arena of international politics.

I found this title while perusing through an older NY Times bestseller's list and gave it a look. Gary Shteyngart is brilliant new author with an uncanny ability when it comes to the magical turn of a phrase. He provides a dual country perspective, as a Russian immigrant living in America. His writing is ingenious and fresh; a well-honed cynical New York/Russian attitude. This is a satirical fiction piece, and quite like nothing I've ever read before. Shteyngart is the ultimate panoramist. His run-on sentences would make Hemingway cringe, but he is an amazingly gifted writer for such a young age. Truly a wordsmith prodigy.

Absurdistan. An ideal title for a fictional city in this cynical post-communist Russia story. A pensive, self-deprecating laughable hero sloshes along in self-induced misery and irony, as well and miserable as a filthy rich fat man can be. Shteyngart is pensive and almost exhausting with each sentence. But in a good way. The main character is reminiscent A Confederacy of Dunces (Penguin Modern Classics).

Easily one of the most original writing styles I've ever read. His flair with the language, his descriptive adjectives in describing scenery and the people involved are often as astounding as they are funny. The storyline was a tad slow, but the writing still had me turning pages quickly. Even better the second read.

I found Shteyngart's second novel even better than the first!! Having spent much time in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, I truly appreciate Misha's personality and the personalities of his counter-parts. I think that what makes this book so great is Shteyngart's depiction of the now former USSR. It is very sterotypical and yet in many ways, so true to how things do work "over there." Of course, Shteyngart takes these sterotypes to the extreme which is what makes it so hilarious or even, might I say, absurd. I think that for those reading this novel who do not have an appreciation for those stereotypes in which Shteyngart depicts may in fact be turned off because they just might not get that what Shteyngart is describing about former Soviet life is in fact somewhat normal. For the rest who do get it, I guarantee that you will be laughing out loud. Well done, Mr. Shteyngart.

I fell in love with Gary Shteyngart's Russian Debutante Handbook only after I read it, or, more accurately, after I passed the middle of it. Handbook was, undoubtedly, hilarious, precise, and exciting, albeit its mid-piece was a tad dry.

I picked up Absurdistan expecting Shteyngart to have learned his lesson. Again, we have a central male character who went to a "progressive Midwest college," a Russian Jew from St. Petersburg, in trouble with America. The underlying theme - take me back to the sanctuary of the Stars and Stripes - is reiterated in this book, only with a little less urgency and pathos. One keeps expecting something to happen, for the **** to hit the fan, but all one gets is pieces of misadventures that never quite assemble into a compelling entanglement.

The protagonist, Misha Vainberg, an obese thirty-year-old denied reentry into the United States, is an interesting character, but he's full of contradictions. In the beginning of the novel, it's almost as if Shteyngart wants us to hate him. Toward the middle, he tries to introduce figures more odious, but since no one peripheral is well-developed, we can't keep our disappointment with Misha up. One of the major paradoxes in the character is that Shteyngart can't decide whether Misha is intelligent or stupid, or whether he's intelligent and just does stupid things. In other words, where Handbook's Girshkin floated between Maladroit and Social Butterfly, Vainberg is in a similar limbo: is he dumb? Is he genius? What is he doing?

The nominal character of a damsel in distress is, likewise, overlooked. Vainberg too easily finds a replacement for his Rouenna to be as in love with her as Shteyngart wants us to believe. Her character disappears altogether for the last third of the book until the Epilogue or so, where Misha is once again pining after her.

Another thing: Misha's urgent appetite for America never quite transpires itself to the reader. In Handbook, Girshkin was threatened with bodily harm. In Absurdistan, Vainberg is leading a fairly comfortable life, for the most part, in a war zone. That last part should be shocking, but Shteyngart sets Vainberg up to be so ignorant that even WE don't care that he is in danger. Perhaps if Shteyngart had included sharper contrasts between St. Petersburg and America and Absurdistan and America, I would've been more sympathetic to Vainberg's cause.

If you're looking for humor, you will find it in select allotments of dialogue. Some of it was so hilarious that I laughed out loud, in public, and for long stretches of time. The other text, descriptions and such, was mostly unimpressive. Even the incisive satirizing of the Russians was missing. It was, instead, utterly benign, especially compared to Handbook.

In all, if you're in the mood for a semi-entertaining beach read, read Absurdistan. In the places where it's funny, it's very funny, and the book goes by relatively quickly.

Fat Russian Jew spends 43 chapters trying to escape his homeland. I loved Shteyngart's previous novels, but this one... well, I read 3/4 of it and then grew bored; I skimmed the next few chapters and read the ending. And I don't feel like I really missed anything.

Notable book of the year notwithstanding, I just couldn't get through "Absurdistan"--and I love parody and satire. I read the first 100 pages or so, but the initially amusing hero quickly became boring, and the grossness was piled on a little too thick for my taste. After awhile, I felt as if scenes started repeating--we hear of the hero's raptures over Ruenna, and a hundred pages later, hear of them again--but over a different girl. There are too many thieving Russians and bumbling bureaucrats in the book for my taste--one or two would have gotten the point across. I just had to cry "Uncle" and leave it unfinished. Perhaps I should try the first book?

Absurdistan is relevant politically, disturbingly realistic, well written, and very entertaining. In the recent months I have fallen behind with current events in the Middle East (not surprising since I only read the LA times...well the comics at least), but after reading Absurdistan I feel that I can just fudge the names and get a pretty good idea of the situation in that part of the world. For a piece of fiction, it struck me as awesomely applicable to today's world and Shteyngart was able to craftily place political messages neatly into an entertaining story. Looking back on the book as a whole, it's disturbing that although every event in the book seems made-up and far fetched, they also seems like they could happen everyday in that part of the world. That mix of fictional events with the mind state of today's real world is what makes Absurdistan so engaging to read.

Shteyngart's characters are just a deftly crafted as the world that those characters exist in. My only problem with the story was that after getting to know every character there wasn't a single one that was a decent person. Mischa is just a grossly obese man trying to escape the life his father created who just loves food, money, women and maybe men a little too. Though he's the hero I just couldn't bring myself to like him. Rouena breaks Mischa's heart and even though she tries to come back around by the end, I just couldn't forgive her. Even Alyosh-Bob, the only character that I thought had a chance to be a hero, leaves Mischa when the going gets tough. Perhaps the lack of morality in Shteygart's characters is just another piece of commentary on today's world. Nevertheless, there is no lack of entertaining and funny material to satisfy any reader. Absurdistan is truly a pertinent piece of literature that and an excellent satire of today's world.

Misha Vainberg is a largely obese, extremely wealthy, extravagant and Russian creature that plays Shtenygart's protagonist in Absurdistan, who somehow manages to be extremely unappealing while equally intriguing at the same time. Misha, disgustingly over weight, eats away his feelings by knocking-back countless oily, sturgeon-kebobs, bottles of vodka, and anxiety pills. Vile descriptions of Misha's eating habits, his jiggling and slowly decaying body, as well as a few crudely explicit sex scenes caused me to close the book several times while reading it. Yet, as gross as the book may be, Shteyngart infuses every page with an offbeat sense of humor that keeps you smiling and eager to read on. Misha, who is slightly insane, also has redeeming qualities that make us sympathize with his kind and troubled soul. Misha becomes a 30-year-old orphan when his father, who is an infamous Russian criminal, dies. Misha is not allowed to return to New York because his father killed a wealthy Oklahoma businessman, and he cannot attain a visa. As we learn some darker and disturbing details about Misha's relationship with his father, we understand that he masks his true feelings for his father with overbearing love. While Misha desires more than anything to escape Russia and be in New York experiencing the luxuries of Western, American culture, he also longs to be in the Arms of his Latina lover Rouenna, from the Bronx. Shteyngart captures Misha's love and desire in an extremely truthful and relatable manner. In an attempt to escape from Russia and bring himself closer to Rouenna and America, Mischa travels to the country Absurdsvani to gain a Belgium passport, and finds himself in the middle of a Civil war. Here, Shtyengart incorporates the relevant the issues of judgment of nationality and the desire of many lesser countries and countrymen to be "Americanized".

Overall, The authors voice is extremely original and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know everyone one of his quirky characters. Although the plot in this novel seems at many times unrealistic, humorous, and "absurd", Shteyngart still manages to make many serious statements throughout the novel about human relationships in our corrupt world. And in the end, we are somehow satisfied with Misha's bizarre journey.

Absurdistan surely lives up to its name. It is absurd. Misha is fabulously wealthy, despite there being 1,237 richer Russians. While his father's criminal record may have cursed Misha's chances of ever getting into the US, invariably, when Misha is in trouble, someone who knows his father bails him out. The title of this review refers to the perenial punchline of this prolonged yuck-yuck of a joke. The audio version is narrated by Arte Johnson who speaks with a credible (Hollywood) Russian accent. For more social commentary, hold the cynicism, check out my own The Moses Probe

The book is a strange story about love, the affection for a beloved papa, for the city of New York, for a sweet and poor girl in the Bronx and for the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service).

The story is told by Misha Borisovich Vainberg, aka "Snack Daddy" a grossly overweight man, an in your face secular Jew with a distinguishably parrot beak and above all, the son the 1238th richest man in Russia. While in the US, on a student visa, he has earned a degree in multicultural studies from Accidental College NY and his sole ambition is to immigrate to the USA and live with his hot Latina girlfriend. However it was not meant to be, it was discovered his gangster father had murdered a businessman in Oklahoma, and to make matters worse his visa card was revoked.

Misha sees his salvation in the oil-rich nation of Absurdistan where consular officers can be easily bought and will sell him a Belgian passport. With his new identity and help from his friend Alosh-Bob and his manservant Timofey, Misha hopes to circumvent previous hurdles but things do not go as planned and everything turns south....

I am surely not the only one to realize that 338 pages of satire quickly becomes a drag especially if the story doesn't grab you from the start. Maintaining a steady diet of satire and mockery has its limits and is not meant for everyone, Misha's pathetic sex driven and unappealing character reaches a point of over exposure and a turn off. I felt the book to be mostly ridiculous, unbelievable and above all absurd. All this said, it may nevertheless appeal to a certain group with a broader sense of humour.

Gary Shteyngart became the darling of the media with his first novel "The Russian Debutante's Handbook", but he's proves that he's not the second coming of Gogol, not even the third or fourth. Vladimir Voinovich, and Victor Pelevin can sleep easy at night because they have nothing to worry about on Shteyngart's account.

The book starts off great, and I would give the first two hundred pages four stars. It has great satire and commentary on the state of Russia today not to mention the way that America and companies like "Golly Burton" take over small countries and rip off the US Taxpayer. He even does a fine job in putting himself back in his place by making fun of a character who has published a book called the "Russian Debutante's Hand Job".

His problem is when he decides to go for social comment and there he falls flat. The best part of the book is getting him to "Absurdsvani" and trying to smuggle him out of the country with a Belgian passport. But like anyone who has heard the same joke to many times in a short period, the jokes about the respect for Jews, Mothers and "you can always drink from my well" get old and 'stupid' real fast.

When he decides to have a phony revolution started by created a non- existing civil war between the "two" main minorities, based on the direction in which the 'footrest' on the orthodox cross is turned... he does a terrible ripoff of "Gulliver's Travels egg controversy". Worse it's also a poor aside to "The Mouse that Roared" wherein a small country declares war on the US hoping that the American's will destroy their country and then spend a fortune building it back up.

The ending is like a kids story, where everyone has been killed, murdered or vanquished and only the good people survive, even if the do it by some non-secquitor ending. I got the feeling that Shteyngart had some stuff left over from a prior book or idea, and decided to throw everything in, just in case he didn't get another chance. How many times do you need to have described to you, how a 325 pound man has sex with his girlfriend?

Very disappointing.

The first third of the book is involving. I loved the descriptions of St. Petersburg, and New York. Unfortunately, the hero then flies to a fantasy country that seems to embody every cliché you've ever heard about the Middle East. Kalashnikovs, oil, random killings -- the incidents pile on top of each other, the hero constantly wringing his hands. It's not funny: it's pastiche.

This is, at times, a densely written book, with joke after joke, some of them slapstick, others self-referential and not obvious to anyone not well read. If you liked Zadie Smith's "White Teeth" then you will enjoy this novel.

The book goes on perhaps too long and the ending lacks the emotional impact or humorous outcome needed for this to be truly successful. But laugh for laugh this one is hard to beat.

Absurd is the perfect word to illustrate the content of the novel. Absurdistan, by Gary Shteyngart, is raunchy and raw, yet satirically humorous and subtly clever. The lovable protagonist, Misha Vainberg, is a 325 pound Russian Jew and son of the 1,238th richest man in Russia who wants nothing more than to go back to America to see his true love. However, he is barred entry into the United States due to his father murdering an American businessman. In Absurdistan, Shteyngart uses a collection of humor and culture to portray his satire of modern day Russia and current affairs.

The satirical humor from the novel was definitely the highlight of my reading. Shteyngart's mocks not only the world inside the novel, but also cleverly mocks himself within a character named Shteynfarb. The connection is unmistakable, not only in the similarities of their names, but the titles of the novels they have written. Shteynfarb writes a novel seemingly similar to Shteyngart's The Russian Debutante's Handbook only with a more inappropriate title. Little satires like these made the book an enjoyable read. The only portion of the novel I did not enjoy were the excessive sexual scenes that could have easily been toned down a bit. Sometimes too much detail is a bad thing.

I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone who is familiar or interested in Russian society. Also, having a sense of humor is a must when reading this book. For anyone who easily takes offense, I do not recommend this book. In conclusion, I can say that I really enjoyed the absurdity found in the novel.

Absurdistan is a very modern tale of the corruption of most is the world by American values. Strangely the rest of the world is more corrupt than the U.S. We however have New York and Los Angeles. Shining cities on the hill.

This book fails on at least two major levels.

First, it tries for an over-the-top, in-your-face, cutting-edge quality. This is why Absurdistan is on many Ten-Best lists. However, the author is just not talented enough to pull it off - a John Irving wannabe.

Second, depiction of the grotesque is risky business. As odd as it sounds, it must be done with finesse or it becomes virtually unreadable (which is the case here). For a positive example, check out Salinger.

The only true appeal I could discern was the setting. Eastern Europe in the 21st century is a very interesting part of the world and it ALMOST makes this novel worth reading.

I highly recommend this splendid satire, which does a perfect job of sending up everything from petro-dictators to the US military-industrial complex, State Department do-gooders, and the Russian nouveau riche. Wryly observant, with the full gamut of funny: from ironic to subtle to laugh-out-loud.

Behold Misha Vainberg, rotund and orotund counterweight to John Kennedy Toole's Ignatius J. Reilly! See him step (heavily) through the remains of another ruined southern city! See his bewilderment at the ways of the world, and witness his ultimate triumph!

Of course, in this book, no dunces line up against Vainberg; indeed, one after another, enemies welcome and feed him, and he toasts his own good fortune while making high-flown pronouncements about the healing powers of sturgeon kebabs.

Then he does this again. And again. And again.

The novel's intermittently funny at its start, when it seems Shteyngart's broad satire of the US and post-Soviet disunion is gearing up for a more sophisticated, and potentially heart-rending, takedown. But then he gets stuck, and the farce goes from tepid to tiresome (wow! Greedy Halliburton employees with Texas drawls! Greedy foreign prostitutes uttering English malapropisms! Where does he get his ideas?).

With its overblown language and insistence on hammering home even the most minor joke, this is the perfect novel for those who don't really have much of a sense of humor, but wish to appear that they do. That said, it's still better than a lot of writing out there. Shteyngart is funnier than most, just nowhere near as funny as he thinks he is.

Today (8/8/08) this book became prophetic. An unknown and unpronounceable town in Georgia (the one that used to be an SSR) is at war with the Russians. A port is being destroyed. It can't be real. Every word of the CNN summary sounds like it was written for "Absurdistan." Here are a few (begin quote):

"I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars," Lyudmila Ostayeva, a resident of the South Ossetia capital, Tskhinvali, told The Associated Press on Friday.

"It's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged," she said after fleeing to a village near the Russian border, AP reported.
...

Hundreds of people, possibly thousands, are fleeing South Ossetia to the Russian region of North Ossetia-Alania, the United Nations reported Friday, citing Russian officials.

About 150 Russian armored vehicles have entered South Ossetia, Saakashvili said, and Georgian forces had shot down two Russian aircraft.

---End Quote

I read Absurdistan while on a transatlantic flight sitting between two men the size of Misha the overweight hero who kept elbowing me throughout the flight. The hilarity of the book is the only thing that kept me from an incident of air rage. A lot of people are going to read this book and laugh and feel connected to the gigantic, poorly circumcised hero. But some people will also read it and not get all the jokes and think this is too over the top. Whatever the case, here's the deal: NOBODY WRITES OR THINKS LIKE SHTEYNGART. Picking up this book is like the first time you read David Foster Wallace. Whether you enjoy DFWs brand of writing or not this is clearly something a serious reader has to experience. When you compare this book to the typical books the publishing houses churn out you will be amazed because each sentence and each thought is completely unique. This is a writer to follow.

Possible Spoilers:

Absurdistan is a novel characterized by absurd situations highlighting heavily clashes of culture and class in our world society today. However, no matter how absurd, every situation pertains directly to current events in today's world. Misha, the main character, is a rich and food-and-drink-loving Russian man with an extremely strong Western influence who desires greatly to move to America. He wears "vintage" Puma tracksuits and raps American rap with his friend Alyosha-Bob. Despite his love for America, he is trapped in Russia because his father, an influential Russian mob boss, murdered an Oklahoman businessman and the American embassy refuses to let Misha enter America.

The culture clashes emerge throughout the novel, sometimes allowing for a bettering of character, and other times just expressing the differences between different peoples of the world. Misha's first relationship is with Rouenna, a low-class, Hispanic, "ghetto" woman from New York. Although Misha is the rich, educated, "cultured" member of the relationship, Rouenna has a lot to teach and a mutual sharing of knowledge commences. Misha puts Rouenna through college, but Rouenna teaches Misha the pleasures of sex, doing laundry, and sex while doing laundry. Also, even though their class, race, and education are entirely different, they are both heavily influenced by American urban culture. Misha and Rouenna find a bond despite the severe difference in their backgrounds.

Absurdistan shows the massive gap between the upper class in the country of Absurdistan and its lower class through the obvious manipulation of the latter by the former. The Nanabragov family creates a war and bomb the rabble in order to get aid from the UN. The rich Americans make money off of the war by getting a "blank check" from the Department of Defense while the people of Absurdistan are being killed and their homes are being bombed to the point where one woman offers to prostitute herself and her child to Misha. The Nanabragovs respect and accommodate Misha in Absurdistan just because of his money and possible connections to Israel while they treat their own people with disdain and kill them off in order to make money.

Absurdistan is a very germane novel and points to many different problems in our time, and I always anticipated the next time I could sit down and continue the book.

I enjoyed the hell out of Absurdistan. It was funny on many different levels. Along with Bankok 8, one of the best stories I've read in a long time. Fun enough that I read half of it on an airplane, making the long flight a pleasureable experience (well, almost), and deep enough to look forward to reading it again soon to pick up on what I missed, and to see how the author did it. This author has it all, and the book is a rich experience.

Shteyngart is a comic virtuoso, and his distance from eastern and western verities makes him uniquely capable of sending up both.
While impressive, the book falls short of his first novel-not least because of its dismisssive attitude toward women. If he was trying to emulate (or perhaps satirize?) the obsessive fascination with male sexual pleasure, he succeeded only in making long swaths of his novel nearly pornographic. The effect is titillating, but empty and distracting.

Truly great satire makes you care about the characters, even as they stetch the bounds of possibility. Absurdistan walks a fine line in this regard with characters that threaten to become charicatures, but somehow don't.

This book has it all. Smart topical political humor of the kind you get when you watch the Daily Show, targets like Halliburton and the oil industry get taken on in a whole new way with brilliant Jewish humor and satire. And then aside from the humor this is a brilliant character study straight out of classical Russian literature. Yes, Misha's weight and the descriptions of his weight may be too much for the most squeamish reader, but in a way Misha is us (Americans) and we are him. And you have to factor in that Misha's big fat heart weighs as much as the rest of him. This is a book that left me near tears in certain parts both from the laughter and the recognition of how awful the world we live in is right now. But in the end I felt a kind of real redemption, not the James Frey kind, when I got to the last pages (not giving anything away). I can't wait to read Shteyngart's first novel. This one is the best I've read in a long while.

Okay, mad props for the author's wild imagination. He maps his own weird land where ethnic rivalries of the Caucusus collide with hiphop and Halliburton. But after a while, the comedy gets heavy-handed, and part of that is the sense of willed hilarity. It's as if someone sat down with friends and said, "What if we updated Confederacy of Dunces? Dude, let's make him not just grossly fat and slobby and obnoxious, but Jewish! And Russian! And better than that, he likes hiphop! He even calls his sweetie Boo." You get my drift. We travel many miles in this book, from the Bronx to St. Petersburg and back and to the shores of the Caspian, but while the world around him goes to pieces, nothing changes for the narrator, despite a half-hearted attempt at epiphany on the author's part. Lots of sound and fury here, but you know what that signifies. . . .

No sophomore jinkx here. If anything, Shteyngart's second effort is better than the first. Written in a more aggressive, satirical style than TRDHB. At the beginning you wish he would have stuck with Vladamir Girshkin. At the end, you fall in love with Misha and want to know more.

No sophomore jinkx here. If anything, Shteyngart's second effort is better than the first. Written in a more aggressive, satirical style than TRDHB. At the beginning you wish he would have stuck with Vladamir Girshkin. At the end, you fall in love with Misha and want to know more.

There is something of the Gorky in this book- the sense for the absurdity of people, places and situations that molds the humor of the Russian, America and Jewish traditions that will amuse and entertain you. Well-written, easy-to-read but also with something to say about the varieties of sub-cultures and identities that we inhabit. Highly recommended.

The book's greatest merit is the humor, deprecating and revealing. It goes beyond mere entertainment because it satirizes both foreign attitudes and the American mindset. In the most hilarious manner it reveals how far removed the American reality is from the rest of the world and how enticing some of the positive attributes of our culture can be. One can also enjoy the hilarious accounts of other viwpoints and mentalities where the notion of legislating away our baser instincts is inconceivable. The downside of the book is that it ends with a wimper. I enjoyed it enough to order one of his other books.

This is perhas the funniest book I have ever read, a compulsively-readable genius contemporary satire in a class by itself. For a synopsis see the the store review, I won't be redundant. If you read one Shteyngart book, this should be it.

Turning into a major fan. Epic story of the foibles of a truly ridiculous "hero." Reminded me a bit of Confederacy of Dunces to a certain extent. Love the humor, rich descriptions, and all of the twists and turns.

Snore. As you read the book, you could care less for the character. The author makes it quite obvious when you're supposed to laugh at his clever and wit. It's so obvious and self-congratulating. He also likes to use the same type of joke throughout the whole book - maybe a small smile at the beginning but it only gets worse. Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time. I bought mine at an airport without the luxury of reading some of these reviews first. Darn it! By the way, another reader liked this to Sandler, don't think so. I think Adam Sandler is usually funny. This to me is nothing like Sandler.

Shteyngart has done it again. This is a more tender work than Russian Debutante's Handbook with a character who's fat but who has the kind of deep Russian soul that will make you fall in love with him. The plot is huge, sprawling, but what do you want? This is Russian satire on the grand scale (reminds me a little of Vladimir Voinovich, but funnier and more astute). And this means Shteyngart will once again take you all over the world and serve you a smorgasbord of feelings and ideas. At the end you are overwhelmed but not in a bad way. Misha Vainberg enters the pantheon of self-thwarted Russian heroes. Excellent.

I approached Gary Shteyngart's second novel, "Absurdistan" with a mixture of anticipation and fear. I very much enjoyed Shteyngart's first novel, "The Russian Debutante's Handbook", and thought it held the promise of even better books to come. But second novels pose a challenge for both the author and the reader. The author must face the dreaded "sophomore slump" and live up to the heightened expectations for his next piece of work. The reader faces a similar challenge. It is one thing to pick up a book and be pleasantly surprised. It is quite another to pick up a book expecting it to be excellent. Shteyngart has passed this test with ease. "Absurdistan" is a page turning farce that kept me laughing throughout.

Absurdistan traces the life, loves and misadventures of one Misha Vainberg. Misha is the 1,238th-richest man in Russia. He is a man of immense proportions (Shteyngart has a number of amusing ways to describe how various parts of his body quiver) and appetites. When he eats his intake of food is enormous and the process of mass ingestion is treated by Misha with something akin to an orgiastic spiritual exercise.

Misha was raised in Leningrad, now known as St. Petersburg. His father was a minor-league Jewish dissident whose chief claim to fame was relieving himself on the dog of an officious Soviet bureaucrat. After the fall of the USSR, Papa rose to wealth and fame by becoming a successful criminal in the "new Russia". Educated in the U.S. at the prestigious liberal-arts Accidental College where he is known as "snack daddy" to his friends, Misha finds his way to New York where he falls in love with Rouenna, a sultry young lady from the South Bronx (think J-Lo but with a bigger trunk). Life falls apart for Misha after his father kills an American competitor. He finds himself stuck in St. Leninsburg (Misha's hilariously apt description of post-Soviet life) with no possibility of obtaining a visa to return to the U.S. In short order Misha's father is murdered. After receiving a multi-million dollar `settlement' from the mobster that killed his father, Misha schemes to return to New York. The plan calls for him to travel to the Republic of Absurdistan, a former Soviet state on the Caspian Sea, obtain a Belgian passport, move to Brussels and from there find his way back to the United States.

As one might expect, the best laid plans of mice and the son of the 1,238th richest man in Russia don't turn out for the best. Rouenna falls into the arm of another man, the unscrupulous Jerry Shteynfarb, an incurable lothario, Russian emigre and author of a well received book with a title very similar to The Russian Debutante's Handbook but which cannot be set out on a family site. The Absurdistanis are divided into two competing sects, the Sevos and Svanis and before too long the nation is embroiled in a civil war for reasons that will remind the reader (as a previous reviewer noted) of Peter Seller's movie The Mouse That Roared. I agree although I would add "as influenced by Heller's Catch-22".

Will Misha make it out of Absurdistan? Will he win Rouenna back or marry the beautiful daughter of one of Absurdistanis leaders? Those questions are answered in the book but the enjoyment is as much in the journey as in the conclusion. Shteyngart has a keen eye for the social and racial distinctions that run through life in the US and in the "new Russia". The dialogue is mordant, sharp, and almost invariably funny. The book is not without its flaws. Misha is not a very attractive character even when he elicits our sympathy. It is hard to get emotionally vested in a character imbued with the gargantuan tastes and appetite of Misha. That is clearly Shteyngart's intent and it serves a purpose in terms of the novel's underlying themes. However, the reader should be aware going in that the 'hero' of the book bears little resemblance to George Clooney. Some may find the descriptions of Misha's loves (eating and women) to be just a bit crude. I thought it worked, but readers should not expect to see refined descriptions of high cuisine and gentle love making. Last, although I thought using Gerry Shteynfarb as a sort of alter-ego nemesis for Misha was amusing, if a bit self-referential, the connection may not be made by those who haven't read The Russian Debutante's Handbook.

All in all, Absurdistan is funny, irreverent, and also in many ways a thoughtful reflection on how our relationship with our family (even if they aren't as wealthy as Misha's) influences our own life choices. Absurdistan was an excellent book and one that I do not hesitate to recommend.

L. Fleisig

This book had wonderful potential, but falls short because the foul language and obsession with useless sexual references. The ending especially falls flat. The abrupt ending leads me to believe that the author needed to make a publishing deadline.

Great concept, tasteless imagery, and horrible conclusion.

The author has great credentials and wonderful potential, maybe the third one will be the ticket.

Couldn't finish reading the book - as a Russian, I find it to be trite and cliched, characters lacking imagination. It sounds as if the author just found a few generic trends and stuck to each person, without thinking too much - the rich daddy, the hooker with the heart of gold, the spoilt rich brat.

But that by itself would have been fine, had the writer not positioned himself as a "Russian". Instead, he lacks deep understanding of Russia, its culture and people. One example is his use of Russian curses. I find his overuse of Russian slang and curses to be extremely offensive - no real reason why almost twice per page the writer puts in these words in his text - they may sound interesting to a foreigner, but to a Russian this is extremely unpleasant to read.

Overall - I stopped reading this "book" midway, and hope that the author refrains from writing anything else.

I was looking forward to reading this book after reading one of the chapters published in The New Yorker, but I have to agree with another reviewer that that was the best part of it! The potential for satire is bottomless, but the author does not explore it. I am a Russian immigrant of the same generation as the author, so I can relate to and understand many of his references to Russian language, slang etc., but I can imagine that being difficult for American readers. Apart from a few lucky passages, the book is not funny, and I am hard pressed to find any satire, clever or otherwise. In my mind I pictured the author as an American Pelevin, but was disappointed. After reading the piece in the New Yorker and seeing the book in the top ten books in the NYT, I gave it as a gift without reading it and am now ashamed about it. This is the second time after The Emperor's Children that I am wondering about criteria of all those 'top' lists....

I thought that the premise for this novel might lead to an amusing political satire, especially since it promised to climax on 9/11. In the event the political content was patronising and the principal character a crude caricature who, of course, had to be overweight and physically unattractive. A book to avoid.

Criminey, what drivel! As an award winning writer, I found this book unlikable almost from the start. As one review said, it is written for adolescent boys with an I.Q. the same as their shoe size.

What is it about Jewish authors that they are obsessed with sex, sexual items, and sexual descriptions when they are not, as you say, moaning and kvetching about life? A complete disaster. The NY Time should be ashamed to give this piece of trash any ground at all. After 25 pages, I knew this was trash and deposited it in the recycling bin. Maybe it will be reborn as something useful.

Vulgar, profane, hilarious. A Confederacy of Dunces meets Still Life with Woodpecker in a post-Soviet dystopia. Plus: white men rap!

Much of this book is hysterical (laugh out loud passages), but it's uneven, especially towards the end. It's chock full of "stuff" (information, characters, jokes), which is both a virtue and a flaw. I wish the author had selected the best jokes and edited out the ones that are just too easy. Despite my reservations, I enjoyed reading this.

I bought Absurdistan chiefly because it was one of The New York Times' 10 best books of 2006, but also because I had just returned from a visit to St. Petersburg and had recently read three books with locales in Azerbaijan. I thought that a highly-recommended book about a St. Petersburg native, who is educated in the US, and ends up in what sounds like Azerbaijan, would suit me just fine. Instead, I found a trashy narrative about a frankly disgusting, self-absorbed, age 30-something juvenile, which abounds in glutinous overeating, pathetic sex, drugs, and existential moaning on virtually every page. The "hero" or "antihero" is about as unappealing a character as I can remember forming the subject of any recent fiction I've read. What the NYT found to be "smart, funny and, in the end, extraordinarily rich and moving," I found to be repulsive, repetitive and boring. I guess it's a matter of taste, and since I'm not the authority on these things, let's say that I just don't get it.

I read this book eagerly after hearing amusing things about it on NPR. I finished it relatively quickly, so it must have been truly amusing. However, I caution that if you didn't sympathize with the protagonist of Portnoy's complaint, you're even less likely to find his modern Russian counterpart to be worthy of compassion. I enjoyed the book, and will remember certain sections of it as illustrations of post-Soviet chaos, but I didn't like the characters and I was not laughing at, or uplifted by the book's content.

This is one of those books reading fans are supposed to like. Critics gave it glowing reviews and it was featured as a notable book of the year for the NYTimes. Unfortunately I found it uninteresting and boring. Plus the main character Misha flat out annoyed me and I was hoping for him to get blown up.

I must be missing something or not qualified to read this novel, but to me it an excersise in trying to hard.

This novel probably sounded great when Shteyngart was first thinking through the setting and the characters. Even the core plot likely seemed interesting when it was loosely outlined.

Unfortunately, that was likely the last time any real thinking happened in the course of executing this novel. The characters are two-dimensional and the plot is trivial. It seems to want to be a broad indictment of globalism, capitalism, and turn of the century greed. Unfortunately, it fails.

I am always a bit piqued when a book is as over-hyped as this and executes poorly. Like the "Rule of Four", this is just a simplistic book with a cool setting. It is not a good book.

Shteyngart has done it again. This is a more tender work than Russian Debutante's Handbook with a character who's fat but who has the kind of deep Russian soul that will make you fall in love with him. The plot is huge, sprawling, but what do you want? This is Russian satire on the grand scale (reminds me a little of Vladimir Voinovich, but funnier and more astute). And this means Shteyngart will once again take you all over the world and serve you a smorgasbord of feelings and ideas. At the end you are overwhelmed but not in a bad way. Misha Vainberg enters the pantheon of self-thwarted Russian heroes. Excellent.

Wading through `Absurdistan,' you will slush by floating logs of banal satire and bobbing accounts of smutt. Perhaps you trudge on, grappling for the 'masterful panoramic descriptions' Walter Kirn promises in his NY Times review, but these glimmering moments in Shteyngart's book are just as brief and extraordinary as the protagonist's flatulence.
One would hope that the virtuoso of indulgence that is Misha Vainberg would win the reader over with humorous appeal, or at least some endearing quality...something..., but Shteyengart heavily relies on Misha's disclosure to the reader alone to make him a feasible hero.
Midway through and one lewd sexual encounter too many, you'll find yourself drowning in a swamp of predictable stereotypes, convoluted plotlines, and plates of Hyatt buffalo wings. If you can't grab hold of the inadequate culturally and socially relative rafts the author dangles over you, then perhaps, as he seems to believe, sultry descriptions of prostitutes' backsides and junk food will keep you afloat.

First of all, Shteyngart didn't invent the title. It goes back to 1971 and was referred to Soviet bloc nations. This novel is well written and inventive, which is not surprising. Unfortunately I learned virtually nothing from it—either about Jewish life in the former Soviet Union or about the lives of ex-Soviets in America. There's a peculiar dearth of feeling in the book, as though the author is not amused with himself, with life, with having to entertain his readers. I found especially disappointing the way the author related to his Jewish identity and to his fellow emigres. It's as though he's ashamed or embarrassed of them. I wouldn't recommend this book.

Having majored in Russian, I'm very interested in new Russian (American) writers of which there are quite a few good ones. No doubt Shteyngart writes well, if not a big bloatedly and disengaging at points but I was totally not interested in his characters or his story. What I laughed at in this book easily reminded me of something in his last book, a possible sign of burnout. I also didn't enjoy the cheap obvious pokes at the American oil industry (haven't we had enough of those to last a lifetime?...in that vein, it might be INTERESTING if one author discusses why Western know how is needed in such dark places instead of the conspiracy to fatten wallets. One might find a Shteyngart conspiracy to fatten his own wallet! What a horrid human impulse that is!) I went through this book, entirely disappointed, never wanting to read the next chapter, going through it in the hopes something intriguing would happen as in his first but other than the stylistic writing, its entirely juvenile plot wise. And not a good coming-of-age type of juvenile. Hopefully he will redeem himself with his next entry.

To those intending to buy the book I recommend the short story by the author published in the New Yorker a couple of months ago as a teaser. It is 6 pages long and contains 95% of the good stuff of the book. I bought the book following the short story and was disappointed.

Insufferably precious here, bold and assured there, this ends up a fairly middling read. Shteyngart pours on the provincialisms and cutesy characterizations, but his themes are strongly developed. A better editor would've cleft away the fat.