** spoiler alert ** I've liked Shteyngart since Absurdistan, and although this is a very different novel, I really loved it. This isn't really a dystopia in the classic sense of the term - there's a tongue-in-cheek quality to it at times which reminds you that Shteyngart isn't writing about how the world could be...but rather how it is. A perfect moment is after the rupture - when Lenny visits his parents in Westbury, and Fox News has a story about how gays are marrying in New York City. The book flutters effortlessly between moments like this and dystopian horrors like the destruction of the Staten Island Ferry.

Now, I'm a recently exiled New Yorker, and others might not be as enamored with Shteyngart's humor (it would be complicated to explain to someone from outside of the city why the hip neighborhood of St. George is quite so funny). But Shteyngart has some very smart things to say about modern American culture, a tremendous literary background to say it from (there are echoes of Soviet and presoviet Russian literature throughout the text). I can't say the ending left me feeling very cheery, but he does tell you it's super sad on the cover, so I suppose you get what you pay for.

Definitely worth reading - one of the best things I've put in my head all year.