Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel (edição: 2011)

Not brilliant, but not terrible. The characters are mostly annoying. Eunice is sometimes kind, but usually pathetic and self-centered. What is it with the constant shopping? Let's hope that in the not- so- distant future everybody is not as whiny as Shteyngart portrays them to be. Besides the atrocious characters, the novel has some merit for taking the pulse of this country's obsession with spending, lack of respect for academics and literature, and the danger of relying too much on digital devices. ( )

I loved this book. The contrast between Eunice's point of view and Lenny's was amazing. I was disappointed that they didn't end up together but it was expected, obviously.

In einem verarmten, von einer Militärjunta regierten Amerika der nahen Zukunft in dem das Zusammenleben sich fast ausschließlich an virtuellen Sozialrankings à la Bonität und Fickfaktor orientiert und die menschliche Interaktion sich auf das Streamen von Nachrichten und Recherchieren von Informationen auf dem allmächtigen "Äppärat" beschränkt ist, verliebt sich der neurotische, in der Midlife-Crisis steckende Lenny Abramov auf altmodische Weise in die junge Koreanerin Eunice Park. "Super Sad True Love Story" ist die Geschichte seines Werbens um Liebe in einer aus den Angeln stürzenden Welt.

Der Roman ist aus zwei Blickwinkeln verfasst und zwar einerseits aus der Sicht Lenny Abramovs in dessen Tagebucheinträgen, andererseits aufgrund von gestreamten Nachrichten Eunice Parks auf deren Global-Teen-Account, einem sozialen Netzwerk. Gekonnt wechselt Shteyngart auch zwischen den Stilen: Während die Tagebucheinträge in altmodischer Prosa verfasst sind, sind die Global-Teens-Nachrichten aufs wesentliche reduziert und durchsetzt von einem fiktiven Jugendslang der nahen Zukunft.

Shteyngarts Roman ist einerseits eine Dystopie mit klassischen antiutopischen Motiven wie Verarmung großer Bevölkerungsschichten, totaler Überwachung, Medienmissbrauch und Jugendwahn. Andererseits ist es auch ein tragikomischer Liebesroman. ( )

This book messes with your mind. Set in the future it shows the possible effect of society being overwhelmed by technology to the extent that when it is turned off they can no longer cope. The people have lost the ability to create proper wholesome relationships. At the beginning you hate the characters; you believe them to be ill-suited to being in love. By the end you crave for some quota of happiness.

The book is sharply written. It's crude in some of its blunt descriptions. I hated this book, and I loved this book. I'm certainly glad I've read it.

Update: Four years later, this book still haunts me. ( )

Set in a predictable but sometimes clever dystopia, I found this book at times tedious and at other times engaging. The silly framing device that closes the book, in which the book reviews itself, makes a good point about the readability of the Eunice chapters compared with the Lenny chapters. Lenny is a sweet idiot and Eunice is disturbed and shallow, but I still found myself caring about the characters and what would become of them. I would call that an accomplishment in a book that's set up more like a satire than a novel. ( )