Finished Mo 7/11/11
I found out about this novel when I listened to Terry Gross interview the author on a podcast of Fresh Air. This is probably one of the better satirical novels to come along in quite a while. However, the structure and style reminded me of Albert Brooks, "2030", yet "Super Sad True Love Story" is better written, and more sarcastic in tone. It is the story of a love affair between Lenny Abramov, son of a Russian immigrant, who works for a government agency called, Post-Human Services. Although already thirty-nine years old, he falls madly in love with a chic and psychologically shattered twenty-four year old Korean-American from New Jersey. In the beginning, the novel is set in Italy, but most of the action takes place in 'a not so distant future' in New York City. Phone and computer services are quite a bit superior to what we have now, but the system seems more than invasive. Streams of data on every imaginable thing are broadcast to all people including Credit Scores, and even the sexual 'hotness' of the individual.
I found the novel kind of lost me about three quarters of the way in, and it did not have the exciting edge of Albert Brook's book. But, Shteyngart's novel was better written, and could be called literature with a capital "L".
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