Super Sad True Love Story (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
This book was suggested to me as a "A Brave New World" for the new millenium, with a little "1984" thrown in here and there as well. Those references turned out to be almost mandatory since this book borrows so heavily from both. It also seemed to me that there was a good portion of "A Confederacy of Dunces". That book proved that you can have a bumbling, man-child as an unlikely lead character and still make it work, even make him a bit lovable. This book doesn't come close to any of those, but let me not hold that against it since there is plenty to find fault with on it's own terms.In "Super Sad True Love Story" Gary Shteyngart manages to graze numerous contemporary themes while truly developing none. Our American culture of technology worship and addictive consumerism is demonstrated incessantly, but never really analyzed. The novel continuously returns to the threads of social responsibility and family, but always in the form of excruciating cliches and mundane irony.That last charge underlines one of the biggest reasons this book didn't work for me. To my mind, this sort of ironic satire has beaten the horse far beyond death at this point. If there is any clear difference between SSTLS and the entertainment glut that it attempts to lampoon, I lost track of it very early on. I think it's time we acknowledge that the social contribution of satire is something of a trojan horse in this day and age. In our media environment it almost never has any social effect beyond entertainment, which is antithetical to the purpose of the genre. It's really become quite insidious in this respect, since so many of us still regard as a form of social action something that really just makes us feel smug. So I can't say I'm certain of what the purpose of a novel like this is. Taken on the whole, isn't really very insightful, nor is it really that entertaining. I can't imagine it inspiring anyone to do...well, anything, really.If there is any actual insight to be gleaned from his near-future realist comedy, it's up to the reader to provide it. In this way, I constantly had the feeling that I was propping the book up on my own, waiting and hoping that he would redeem the tedium of the first 2/3 of the book at the end. It wasn't to be. The characters were agonizingly uninteresting and unlikable. Lenny's deepest moments were essentially like the average 14 year old reinterpreting Phillip Roth in his own words. Eunice was exactly the same thing you'd get from following any number of teenage girls on twitter or reading their private facebook messages, only she also seemed to have the sexual perspective of a horny forty year old man.Still, I couldn't help but feel that even the most debased, oblivious and self serving members of our society have more humanity than these two characters, even though many of us are already more immersed in media and consumer culture than they. A few of the ways that Shteyngart thought to fast-forward current trends were actually a bit clever or funny, such as the porn as fashion extremism, the credit poles, the kitsch cartoon border-guards. But even the best of it was repeated until it lost it's punch, and the discerning eye might notice far more absurdity in our present society than anything invented in the book.I guess I just need a little more substance at the end of the day. I get that it's supposed to be somewhat vapid, but I've read other authors, a few of which I've mentioned, who can convey that critique of society without punishing the reader for the defects of his characters. Another great outing from Gary Shteyngart. In addition to being hilarious, he created a futuristic world in such detail that you believe it exists. Or maybe that's because it's so close to the world we live in today that it's credible. Whenever I spend too much time on my devices, I remind myself that I don't want to live in that world. Looking forward to delving into his memoir and then whatever novel comes next!
What do You think about Super Sad True Love Story (2010)?
Quite possibly one of the oddest books I've ever had the pleasure of reading!
—Chaz
This is the best new 1984 type book I have read.
—Brendalm
