New Shteyngart novel is one good thing to come out of pandemic
“Our Country Friends” by Gary Shteyngart (Random House, 317 pages, $28).
A new book from Gary Shteyngart is an event. Every four years, like clockwork, he puts out another one. I regard Gary as our greatest literary humorist. Impressive for a guy who was born in Leningrad in the former Soviet Union in 1972. I was expecting his next book to be out in 2022, so I was stunned when I saw his latest novel, “Our Country Friends,” was set for an autumn release. A year early!
I wondered, how did he do it? Shteyngart took advantage of all the extra time he had last year when the pandemic drove him away from New York City. While ensconced in splendid isolation in New York’s Hudson Valley, he cranked out this new work. I interviewed him recently, and he explained that he would take long walks and while he did that, he was writing this book on his iphone.
The pandemic is the underlying theme driving the action in “Our Country Friends.” Sasha Senderovsky and his wife Masha are living at their country place with their daughter, Natasha. They decide to invite some close friends to come and stay with them as the pandemic is sweeping the land.
Sasha is a writer. He has had some successes, but at the moment his career appears to be on a downward trajectory. Masha is a psychologist who has been conducting sessions with her patients remotely via the internet. Most of her clients are elderly Russian immigrants.
Their daughter, Natasha, is a preteen. She’s super smart, but she has some issues. For one thing, she has been having difficulty making friendships. She attends a very exclusive (read expensive) school. As the book opens, it appears that her only friends are the flock of sheep that live across the way.
Sasha has a number of bungalows on the property, and he’s ready to bivouac his guests in those. He’s stocked up on gourmet food and alcoholic beverages for his company to enjoy. They are planning to have their guests stay for quite a while.
At least that’s the plan. Sasha is spending money he doesn’t have. The friends, Karen, Vinod, Ed and Dee, arrive. They are still waiting for one more guest. Shteyngart refers to this fellow as The Actor. He’s the guest who isn’t really a friend. Sasha has invited him because he’s hoping this movie star is going to develop a screenplay Sasha wrote.
The Actor finally turns up as this wacky soap opera unfolds. The author is a keen observer, his characters engage in interactions that feel very real. We human beings are quite the tormented lot, aren’t we? Perhaps some characters are about to die? The Actor’s narcissism relegates him to acts of villainy.
The pandemic enshrouds the plot. There’s humor and pathos and some lovable houseguests. With “Our Country Friends,” Gary Shteyngart has written the first great modern plague novel.
You can hear my latest interview with Gary Shteyngart today at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO (91.3FM)
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www. wyso.org/programs/booknook. Contact him at vick@ vickmickunas.com.