The author, a
scant year younger than me and a native of Russian, has created an American
dystopia that feels like it's only days away. Our hero, Lenny Abramov, is one
of the few readers left in a post-literate age and chronicles his life in what
may be the last diary in the world. Lenny is well-off – he sells life-extension
plans to the wealthy – but he's at least two large, social steps behind his
media-savvy friends who broadcast their every move and interaction for the
at-home audience.
Shteyngart's world
is one of smart-phone aps that can rate the sex appeal, financial solvency and
FAC-ability (form a community) of anyone and everyone in the room. Lenny has
plenty of dough, and plenty of compassion, but he's not pretty. That's why he's
thrilled when Eunice, a young Amer-Asian woman he met in Italy, decides to move
in with him for a while.
Couple all this
with a United States government that wants to deport any nonwhite family with
bad credit, a global market and communication system that runs off a
social-networking site called GlobalTeens and a cash-flow problem that requires
China to call in all its markers, and you get quite a book.
Shteyngart wrote SSTLS
mostly in first person, though the eyes of Lenny Abramov, but he puts us into
other characters' heads courtesy of their GlobalTeen messages. Eunice
(Euni-tard) writes to her friend Grillbitch, her sister Sallystar, to her
first-generation Korean Mom and, near the book's end, to herself. Letting
readers see the messages is a neat gimmick because it allows us to see Eunice
changing over time while Lenny's perception of her remains the same. He's an
unreliable narrator, but we know the truth.
“Lenny. Will he
ever forgive me? I feel like a recycling bin sometimes, with all these things
passing through me from one person to another, love, hate, seduction,
attraction, all of it. I wish I were stronger and more secure in myself so that
I could really spend my life with a guy like Lenny.” (SSTLS, page
298)
This, from a
character who, at the start of the book, has few thoughts deeper than fashion
and sex.
“What's up,
twat? Missing your 'tard? Wanna dump a little sugar on me? JBF. I am so sick of
making out with girls. BTW, I saw the pictures on the Elderbird alum board with
your tongue in Bryana's, um, ear.” (SSTLS, page 27)
Shteyngart's
themes intersect the ones I'm working with in my big W.I.P. We're both playing
in a near future where neglect and high-tech are eroding the things that
matter: art, beauty, love, nature and friendship. Shteyngart also deals with technology that is
close enough today to recognize but just out of reach of consumers. Shteyngart's story really could just be a Tuesday away.
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