Read about Shteyngart's heroine from outside literature.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]
--Marshal Zeringue