Absurdistan Paperback – 4 Feb. 2008

Misha Vainberg, son of Boris Vainberg, is the 1,238th richest man in Russia. Educated in the US at Accidental College, and a former resident of New York City, he can’t re-enter the US from his home in St. Petersburg, because the State Department is perturbed about his dad murdering an Oklahoman businessman. Honestly, those Americans and their principles. In St. Petersburg, Misha’s dad is murdered. Witnessing Papa’s death and being unable to get back to the States to be with the girl he loves (a barely literate stripper who he’s is putting through college), Misha thesophisticate and melancholic becomes decidedly more melancholic. Besides, he’s too Americanized to live in Russia, where there isn’t even much rap music. So, Misha travels to Absurdistan, an oil-rich country on the Caspian that most Americans can’t even find on a map, and bribes a diplomat to get him Belgian citizenship. But then a war breaks out between two rival and nearly identical factions and poor rich Misha is trapped. He hides out in the Hyatt, surviving on buffalo-wings and Johnny Walker black label, but his money has limits (everything, Misha realizes, has limits). Perennially naïve and believing he’s much more charitable than he really is (he keeps claiming to be the head of a charity for children), the junior Vainberg gets caught up in Adbsurdi politics and that’s when things get truly, well, absurdi. Will he ever get out of this odd little country? Will he make it back to the land of liberty and the titty-bar girl he loves?That’s the plot: simple, but fleshed out by beautiful writing and boundless quirkiness and fun. I must say that I loved this novel. Gary Shteyngart has the literary flare of Martin Amis, the wonderful oddness of Kurt Vonnegut, and the eccentric Jewish humour of Mordecai Richler. Indeed, I’ve read few books as funny or well-written and don’t know how anyone could give it less than five stars. If Shteyngart weren’t a satirist, he’d probably be considered one of America’s most gifted writers, but satire is his game and he plays it better than possibly anyone. Here’s a writer I will read again.Troy Parfitt is the author of Why China Will Never Rule the World and War Torn: Adventures in the Brave New Canada.

Maya J's review is spot on so I won't attempt to better that description of the plot points or the novel's blend of satire and farce, but I did want to add a couple of points to it.That review overlooks the Jewish themes that run throughout the novel, and Jewish behaviour is one of the key targets for Shteyngart's absurd satire.Finally there was something a bit too familiar about Misha Vainberg, who reminded me a good deal too much of the central character in Bo Fowler's "The Astrological Diary of God". Although Fowler's book targets religion and worship rather than Russian and US cultures, there are several parallels. Ultimately though I would recommend "The Astrological Diary Of God" more than this because it has a greater success rate when it comes to hitting the mark.Also, it's a limp criticism I know but the ending of "Absurdistan" feels hurried and flat, and I think it's the last 10 pages or so that are the real cause of the "um... what was the point of that?" feeling that this book does give you at the end. But up until that point, it's definitely worth reading.

In 1990, after the break up of the Soviet Union, Boris Vainberg, a Russian Jew already on the way to becoming a wealthy oligarch, sends his 18 year-old and grossly overweight son Misha to be educated at Accidental College in the American Mid-West with a view to him making his fortune in the US.Eight years later, in possession of an American degree and after he had enjoyed an opulent life-style in New York on Papa's money, Misha is back in St Petersburg on a visit.His father has murdered an Oklahoma businessman, and Misha is denied a visa to return to the US. The EU won't have him either.Then Boris, now the 1,238th richest man in Russia, is murdered by Oleg the Moose, a former partner-oligarch with whom he has fallen out. Oleg is in is in with the governor of St Petersburg, so there is no chance of prosecuting him. He will take over Boris' empire and pay Misha $28 million. Misha will accept, or else ...For this - and other reasons I must not divulge - he wants to get out of Russia. He is told that the Belgian counselor in Svanï City, the capital of the former Soviet and now independent Republic of Absurdsvanï (or Absurdistan), would, for a consideration, get him a passport as a Belgian citizen.The Caspian Sea off Svanï City is studded with oil rigs, and the city is studded with the the tower blocks of multinational companies that have moved in to exploit the oil (and sometimes to be themselves exploited. Why, Boris Vainberg had become an iconic figure to the Absurdis because he had once got five million dollars out of the local subsidiary of Halliburton for a piece of equipment worth a tiny fraction of that amount.) The Absurdi natives belong to two rival Christian sects, the Svanï and the Sevo, deeply divided over the angle of the footrest on the Orthodox crucifix (and over the route of the pipeline that was to be built). Civil war breaks out between them just as Misha takes delivery of his Belgian passport in Svanï Ciy; the airport is closed, and he is trapped there. The airport remains closed during a prolonged truce between the sects. Not that Misha minds: he is cocooned in the Hyatt Hotel where he can eat and can fornicate on a massive scale with a girl whose father is a big noise among the Sevo. Then the war resumes; Mischa is appointed Sevo minister with the special mission of enlisting the help of Israel and of American Jews for the Sevo people, who are said to have protected the Mountain Jews of the Caucasus during the Nazi invasion. And then ... we get to a pretty chaotic ending which I must not reveal, except to say that the story plumbs the uttermost depths of cynicism.The book is raunchy and randy (considerably overdoing it, in my opinion). Its humour is often crude and juvenile. Its satire about the corruption of the post-communist world, both East and West, is boisterous rather than subtle. There is the richness of imagery and the Jewish humour (and the same plethora of four letter words) that we also find in Michael Chabon's `The Yiddish Policemen's Union' (which happens to be the previous book I have reviewed on Amazon). And both books go in for the kind of Hasid-bashing which a non-Jewish author would avoid for fear of offending against political correctness.The New York Times Book Review chose it as one of the ten best books of 2006. I must say I had credited that august publication with more maturity.

What a wonderful book to follow Super Sad True Love Story! This tale of utter lunacy (somewhat based on real life) in the land of Absurdistan - is joyful.I barely remember what happens - just read it!

A funny read for anyone who has ever worked in Russia or the Republics. The globe trotting aspect brings a richness and the view of the oil titans is a nice red thread on business.

Nella prima parte è un po' noiosetto, ma credo sia voluto per meglio rappresentare la monotonia delle condizioni di vita iniziali del protagonista, poi si entra nel vivo e il ritmo si fa più incalzante.Interessante anche per l'ambientazione in una turbolenta località della ex unione sovietica.

Funny, unapologetic, painfully awkward at times, and indeed, absurd, Shteyngart offers up a contemporary assessment of the reach and fumbles of modern America through the eyes of Misha, a wealthy-by-inheritance Russian who wants nothing more than to return to his true homeland... The United States of America.Misha is obscenely obese, uncontrollably and unabashedly gluttonous, an alcoholic with a cringe-worthy lack of self-control, slightly-criminal, a student of the Marie-Antoinette School of Rich and Ignorant, and a curious, well-meaning, often-loveably oaf. In short, Misha is America.Unforunately, Misha wasn't born in America, and he finds himself struggling to get back to New York after his wealthy gangster father kills an Oklahoma businessman and the entire Vainburg family is barred re-entry from his beloved New York, and from his actual beloved, a round-bottomed, foul-mouthed stripper with a heart-after-gold, Rouenna.His adventures take him to Absurdistan, an ex-soviet state fractured by religious sectarian issues borne from laughable theological debate, overrun with Halliburton contractors, and absolutely lacking in that promised international currency, oil. Misha stumbles into the nascent civil war, and becoming enmeshed with the most corrupt characters by means of his honourable - if misplaced - intentions and his easily-swayed sex-drive.Will Misha manage to detach himself from elite Absurdis pinching his every roll of lard? Will he manage to steal back his Rouenna from that god-awful, classless professor Jerry Shteynfarb? Those questions drive this contemporary reflection on the true absurdity of war, love, and INS.My favourite book of 2012.

Amusant, distrayantUn regard leger sur les reves , les desirs et les illusions d une nouvelle jeunesse russe confrontee aux demons du monde occidental et ses diktatsComme son premier livre , Traite de savoir vivre a l usage des jeunes russes, c est une ballade dans un autre univers parfois aux sentiers quelque peu ardus !

Subversiver Humor, rasante Handlung, ein Mix aus interessanten realen und fiktiven Schauplätzen und jede Menge kluger und bissiger Gesellschaftssatire kennzeichnen diesen ungewöhnlichen Roman, der zwar unterhaltsam, aber trotzdem keine leichte Lektüre ist. Man ist hin- und hergerissen zwischen Abscheu und Sympathie für den fetten Misha, Sohn eines kriminellen St. Petersburger Oligarchen, der im Geld schwimmt, dabei herrlich nichtsnutzig sein Leben verbringt und doch nebenbei versucht, Gutes zu tun. Zum Beispiel seinen Diener nicht allzu sehr zu misshandeln, aus reinem Mitleid mit seiner jugendlichen Stiefmutter zu schlafen, oder einen schwächelnden Dissidenten im Ölstaat "Absurdistan" an Kaspischen Meer vor der Ermordung zu bewahren. Sein Hauptziel aber ist es, endlich wieder ein Visum für die USA zu bekommen, wo seine Geliebte lebt - eine Kellnerin aus der Bronx, die ihn auch noch betrügt.Im Rückspiegel dieser persönlichen Geschichte und scheinbar nebenbei kritisiert Shteyngart die enge Verflechtung des U.S.-Militärs mit der Rüstungsindustrie und mit den Politikern, die von diesem Deal profitieren (auf Kosten der vom Militär besetzten Länder wie z.B. "Absurdistan"), zeichnet ein drastisches und farbenreiches Sittenbild des heutigen Russland und macht sich in äußerst komischer Weise über religiösen Fundamentalismus lustig.Empfehlenswert, witzig und kurzweilig zu lesen, für aufmerksame Leser, die zwischen den Zeilen lesen können, einen guten Sinn für Zynik und Ironie haben mit des Autors Neigung zur Drastik und zur Sentimentalität leben können.

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