“Today I’ve made a major decision. I’m never going to die.” writes Lenny Abramov in his diary, and the first sentence of the book. And immediately, one is curious to know more.
The book is set in post literate American culture and traces the lives of Lenny Abramov and his love interest Eunice Park. Lenny is middle aged, balding and out of shape son of Russian immigrant parents, and is working as the Life Lovers Outreach Coordinator (Grade G) at the Post-Human Services division of the Staatling-Wapachung Corporation, a firm that specializes in life extension, while Eunice, hails from a Koren immigrant family and is the daughter of an abusive father and an exceedingly submissive Korean mother, she has finished her studies with a major in Assertiveness and Images.
For Lenny it is love at first sight, while Eunice struggles to make herself love him, is constantly repulsed by his looks, often calling him “nerd-face”, and afraid to look at them together in the mirror. But as the story progresses, she grudgingly, hesitantly starts to value his loyalty. What binds them together however, is their struggle with their own inferiority complexes, and Lenny’s complete devotion to Eunice. The points where Lenny is overcome with unbridled love for Eunice, are the parts that give a deep richness to Gary Shteyngart’s text
“The love I felt for her on that train ride had a capital and provinces, parishes and a Vatican, an orange planet and many sullen moons —
it was systemic and it was complete.” is by far, the most evocative and accurate description of love I have ever come across.
The story take cues from the current American financial situation and extrapolates it into the future, creating a dark vision of the future generations, their environments and their reactions to it.
Every time the tone shifts from Lenny’s realistic diary entries to Eunice’s teenage, pornography studded, shallow exchanges through her äppärät (a device that is the centre of everyones lives, and live-streams all that is still considered private and sacred, willingly), one cannot help cringing. Perhaps that was the intended reaction as the book, like a pendulum oscillates between the superficial nature of future communications and the disconcerting but touching account of love and loss, which leaves you deeply uncomfortable.
Gary Shteyngart’s dystopian vision of America is indeed disturbing, so much so that one doesn’t know till the very end, and even after that, if they should absolutely love the book or absolutely despise it. His America of the future while teetering on the brink of a colossal meltdown, is inhabited by people who find books ‘smelly’, who want to live forever, who shop at AssLuxury and JuicyPussyline for nippleless bras, communicate through a Global teens account, and are constantly assessed through the street-side credit rating poles.
This vision of America while written to be severe, fails to elicit any sympathy, but causes an unrest that one cannot begin to give words to.
The part that keeps the narrative together however is Lenny’s relationship with Eunice, and his parents, his daily diary entries, and his endearing struggle to love New York. Clearly demonstrated in this line from Lenny’s diary “Every returning New Yorker asks the question: Is this still my city? I have a ready answer, cloaked in obstinate despair: It is. And if it’s not, I will love it all the more. I will love it to the point where it becomes mine again.” .
In pieces, throughout the book you are forced to dislike Eunice less, when looking beneath her words, you find a vulnerability that leaves you stunned with its poignant sadness.
It is this poignant sadness that hits you hard, at some points in the book, while leaving other parts acutely emotion-less and desperately satirical. Only after reading the book, does one realize, how aptly it is titled, a perfect mix of the deep melancholy sparkling through the pages and the biting crudeness embedded in the language.
This is a book that consistently smells of grief and the inevitable decay of human society, wafting through the air, as you turn its pages, and is truly a Super Sad True Love Story.
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