I started reading this book having never read anything else by this author and with no idea what this story was about. If anything, I was worried that it would be melodramatic from the sound of the title. By the time I finished the first page I realized that this novel is anything but a breezy, sappy story. The satire was almost biting at times, but this book managed to make me laugh and almost cry before I finished it. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes well written fiction with heaps of social commentary and a sardonic twist.
4 comments:
This is a pretty entertaining read about falling in love while the world goes mad and consequently falls down around you. In that sense, it's a novel of our generation. Some interesting ideas regarding what society looks like when technologically accelerated wealth, sexuality, social transparency (and perversely, corruption), are all taken to the n'th degree.
I haven't read this author's work before and I kept hearing how hilarious and clever this book was. I think G.S. is a genius but ultimately, this book gave me nightmares because it felt so close to the bone. I could really see the current trends playing out to these dreary ends, and I could not laugh at it. That said, I will now read anything he writes.
Part old-fashioned romance, part dystopian fantasy, part full-on satire -- this book is one wild ride. Hold on and you'll be glad you did. He writes with a verve and sense of humor I haven't seen since, well, maybe ever. A bit less hip, but for more readable, then his last book.
The world "Super Sad True Love" describes is definitely "a ruthless and crass digital dystopia". It scares me and makes me really sad, but not hilarious as someone described. I suspected Shteyngart neither read e-books nor use Social Network Service, and I was right about it. When people criticize things they don't really know, it feels shallow. There's some snobbish notion in the publishing world that e-books will make people not to read intelligent literature.
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