Super Sad True Love Story by Gary ShteyngartMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I picked this up in the bargain bin at the supermarket. Which I think is apt for the crazy farce of our very near future it ended up being. Lenny returns from Italy after a less than successful business stay trying to sell the uber-rich eternal life. He returns to an America deep in debt to the Chinese (hmmm...), his friends self-absorbed in their apparati (suspiciously sounding like apple...), and political protestors camped out in Central Park. A much younger girl he met in Italy, Eunice, comes and joins him and they slowly become a couple. Or do they? Can Eunice really love anyone outside of herself? Is Lenny just using Eunice as a younger version of his best friend's wife, whom he has always been in love with?
I thought the satire was dead-on. The scary part was that it is not too far from the truth. It is true that it could be crude, but in a world where we think bridesmaids crapping in the street is the ultimate in high comedy these days, aren't we just sinking further in the pit ourselves?
I was hoping more from the love story. I suppose they learned that true love comes from familial love and service to others. It would have been nice to have the main characters have reached a state of well-being or peace but then again, it was supposed to be a super-sad love story.
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