Volume 53, Number 12 · July 13, 2006
At the Trough
By Christian Caryl
Absurdistan
by Gary Shteyngart
Random House, 333 pp., $24.95
The hero of Gary Shteyngart's extremely funny second novel is Misha Vainberg, son of a 'St. Leninsburg' oligarch who is, we are told, the 1,238th-richest man in Russia. Misha has unflattering things to say about Jews, gays, inner-city dwellers, and white guys from the State Department. He has a voracious sexual appetite unchecked by any notions of political or other kinds of correctness; among his many conquests, he has sex with his stepmother shortly after his dad's funeral. (Misha's defense: 'It is a capital insult in this country not to make love to a naked woman, even if she is related to you.')
Review, 4001 words
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