Gary (nee Igor)
Shteyngart was born in 1972 the former Soviet Union and spent the first years
of his life with his parents in Leningrad.
When Soviet Jews were allowed to emigrate in the late 1970s, his family
left and ended up in Queens. There the
former Igor – the name was too reminiscent of Frankenstein – finds life among the former enemy difficult. The religiously unobservant Gary fits in poorly
in a Jewish school, struggles with English and Hebrew, practically dies of
asthma, and feels himself the “Little Failure” that is his mother’s diminutive for
him. Although I have been unable to read
any of his three very well-reviewed novels, this is a marvelous memoir of
someone who only in adulthood begins to understand his parents, his unique
life, and feel less of a misfit at everything.
Sad, hilarious, and moving. 350
pp.
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