A striver's tale

摘要

Gary shteyngart, who emigrated from the Soviet Union to America in 1978, when he was seven years old, has published three award-winning, bestsell-ing, critically acclaimed works of fiction. "The Russian Debutante's Handbook" had all the benefits and drawbacks of a first novel: immense energy, huge ambition and a plot that more or less came off the rails in the last third of the book. Since then he has produced two other books, "Ab-surdistan" and "Super Sad True Love Story". These are more controlled, but retain the author's characteristic lunatic sense of humour. For Mr Shteyngart possesses a rare trait for a serious novelist: he is funny-and not just knowing-nod, wry-smile funny, but laugh-aloud, drink-no-liquids-while-reading funny. His style of humour is antic and wry, and rests equally on sharp turns of phrase and scarcely credible situations. Underlying his writing, always, is yearning, love and often deep sadness. The title of his third novel, "Super Sad True Love Story", could apply equally well to any of his works.