Saturday, February 1, 2014

Gary Shteyngart

Gary Shteyngart's latest book is Little Failure: A Memoir. From his conversation with Daniel Asa Rose for the Barnes & Noble Review:

BNR: Which if any of the following descriptions of your protagonists from various books applies to you?

"Small, embarrassed, Jewish, foreigner, accent" (
The Russian Debutante's Handbook, p. 78)
"unworthy, always unworthy" (
Super Sad True Love Story, p. 67)
"the dull pain of being somehow insufficient. Of being half-formed" (
Russian Debutante's Handbook, p. 78)

GS: None of the above. I change from year to year. I'll figure out who I am by the next book. Stay tuned.

BNR: Does that mean there's a sequel in the works? What will it be called?

GS: "Enormous Honking Failure: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Mom."

BNR: Toward the end of Little Failure, your mentor, John, says, "You have to decide to take yourself seriously, not in a phony self-pitying way, but in a serious, dignified way." Was that good advice?

GS: That was...[read on]
Read about Shteyngart's heroine from outside literature.

--Marshal Zeringue