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Absurdistan
by Gary Shteyngart
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Granta Books (2007-06-04)
ISBN: 1862079722
EAN: 9781862079724
Paperback: 352 pages
Condition: New
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Customer Reviews
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Not perfect but a decent absurd farce that keeps you reading
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-07-16
Maya J's review is spot on so I won't attempt to better that description of the plot points or the novel's blend of satire and farce, but I did want to add a couple of points to it.
That review overlooks the Jewish themes that run throughout the novel, and Jewish behaviour is one of the key targets for Shteyngart's absurd satire.
Finally there was something a bit too familiar about Misha Vainberg, who reminded me a good deal too much of the central character in Bo Fowler's "The Astrological Diary of God". Although Fowler's book targets religion and worship rather than Russian and US cultures, there are several parallels. Ultimately though I would recommend "The Astrological Diary Of God" more than this because it has a greater success rate when it comes to hitting the mark.
Also, it's a limp criticism I know but the ending of "Absurdistan" feels hurried and flat, and I think it's the last 10 pages or so that are the real cause of the "um... what was the point of that?" feeling that this book does give you at the end. But up until that point, it's definitely worth reading.
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Finaly finished
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-07-09
After finishing this book i feel i have wasted 3 weeks of my life, the charactors are empty and i lost touch with most of them, there were some funny moments but not many and most of the time i was repulsed by Misha, and the never ending drivell of his adventures. maybe i missed the point of this book it realy looked better than it was.
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Bland, meandering and just doesn't work
Rating (2)
Date: 2008-05-15
First off, I'm not going to proclaim this book is rubbish. It isn't. There are far worse you can easily get your hands on, far less intelligent and indeed I have read them too.
There are bits of this book that will make you laugh out loud, repulse you (in a good book kind of way), and provoke empathy for the characters. It is also a pretty relevant book too in terms of the references to oil company exploitation and the bleeding of the worst of Western Culture into the Eastern Bloc. Pretty much all the good bits mentioned throughout the other reviews.
But....
I found I was utterly apathetic about the lead character. You didn't like him enough to feel sorry about him and be compelled to read on to find out if he triumphed morally over his life. Neither though did you dislike him enough to be compelled to read on to revel in his further misfortunes. You just turn the pages in a shrug of the shoulders kind of way.
As such I found the book had very few key recurring themes around which it could hang events and plot lines, seeming to simply blunder from one place to another. Which you never really get interested in enough as a reader because, well, they are almost irrelevant. It is the anecdotal experiences of the lead character that are the most amusing but the reliance on them around which to hang most of the book, rather than strong plots and important events, turn the whole thing into a one trick pony. A trick that gets very tired as well after the first third of the book.
Yes it is very amusing in places, some of the dialogue especially with Alyosha Bob, and you do shake your head in disbelief at the idiocy of the characters in there. But you start to think "what is the point of this?" many times.
I certainly can't say to never read the book, but neither can I recommend buying it. Borrow it or get it from a library, because you will likely feel a bit hard done by if you pay full price for it as I did.
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Absurd is right
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-02-21
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I read this because of the rave reviews in all the papers. I loved Confederacy of Dunces and thought this sounded just as clever and absurdly funny. Well I thought it wasn't funny or clever.I've either got to stop thinking or stop reading book reviews in newspapers. No, that wasn't an invitation to respond, thank you.
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Very clever, very dark
Rating (4)
Date: 2007-12-31
Enjoy for the quality of the writing, the ideas, the black humour, and the cuts of deep satire.
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