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Our Country Friends is my second experience with a Gary Shteyngart novel, and I suppose the good news is that I actually finished this one. So needless to say, I won't be recommending this one to others without including a lot of qualifying comments:
What drew my interest to Our Country Friends is that it is one of the first novels I've encountered set in 2020 and focusing on all the confusion of that year as the world tried to figure out how to cope with a new virus that eventually came to be called COVID-19. In this case, a handful of lifelong friends and friends-of-friends gather in upper New York state where they hope to keep themselves safe by self-quarantining there as a group during the worst of it. What they fail to take into account is just how closed in a little world they are creating for themselves. It is no surprise to the reader that little cracks in past relationships soon widen into major breaks. Within weeks, new sexual pairings have come and gone, petty jealousies have been exposed, and none of the friends will ever see each other the same again.
I've come to the conclusion that a Gary Shteyngart novel is unlikely to work for me because I find it so difficult to be around his characters long enough to finish one of them. The core characters in this one are mainly first-generation Americans whose parents are from either Russia or India (Shteyngart himself came to America from Russia as a seven-year-old). Even though I am always curious about the immigrant experience, Shteyngart's characters are so obsessed by their experiences that it makes them seem weak and superficial - and even worse, boring. The only character that kept me at all entertained was the little Korean girl who had been adopted by the host couple. She is a gem of a character.
Gary Shteyngart is a definite darling of the critics (especially those on the East Coast), so I must be missing something. I just wish I could figure out what that is.
Not an author I'm at all familiar with so this was an interesting read. The premise for the book is really intriguing but like you I struggle with self-obsessed people and a whole group of them might just send me over the edge. LOL!
ReplyDeleteHardly have I ever run into so many pretentious people in one book, Cath. For all I know, this book is satire, but even if that's the case, I found it an irritating space to live in for a few hours of reading.
DeleteI've never heard of this one. I like the idea of it- especially as it depicts a phenomenon we've all struggled with recently- but I think I would also struggle to get through it. Difficult for me to finish a book if I don't like or feel invested in any of the characters.
ReplyDeleteJeane, a novel in which almost every character is his own worst enemy gets old after a while. This group was both insecure with their fame and success and pretentious about it all at the same time. Not sure how I managed to finish it.
DeleteHi Sam, Thanks for the heads up on this one because I was thinking of giving it a try but wasn't sure and your review points out the problems. If one is going to do a novel about a major disaster, it's not easy. How many great books came out about the 1918 pandemic for example. I'd .ike to read them but I don't think they were ever written.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Kathy. There were a few, but some of the best about that epidemic didn't come out until decades later. It's a whole different point of view, but maybe sometimes hindsight is actually better than something written by a contemporary observer.
DeleteOkay Sam good to know. I have not read a Gary novel yet or attempted one but maybe I should pass as well. I thought he was supposed to have a good sense of humor ... but it sounds like his characters might not be worth it.
ReplyDeleteHe definitely has a sense of humor...whether it's a good one or not is debatable. He seems to always be on the verge of satire, and I find satire hard to take seriously, so maybe the problem is mine.
DeleteI haven't heard of the book or the author, and your opinion of it would keep me from wanting to read. I think I would be interested in a book that reflected (in fiction) on the experiences various people had with Covid, but I guess this won't be it.
ReplyDeleteThat's why i wanted to read it, too...wondering how it all would be covered in contemporary fiction. But, as it turns out, I really didn't want to spend all that much time with this particular group of egotists. I found myself almost wishing that Covid would claim the lot of them. :-)
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