Immigration Law

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: GARY SHTEYNGART - AUTHOR

By Greg Siskind

I just finished reading the very funny, somewhat raunchy satirical novel Absurdistan by young Russian-born writer Gary Shteyngart. The novel is about a son of the 1238th richest man in Russia who finds himself in the middle of a manufactured civil war in the former Soviet Republic of Absurdistan. One review of the book called it "Jonathan Swift does South Park" and that's probably a pretty apt description of the book.

Shteyngart emigrated to the US in 1979 at the age of seven and went on to become a writing professor at Hunter College in New York, just like Russian immigrant Jerry Shteynfarb, the lead character Misha Vainberg's nemesis in Absurdistan. Shteyngart previous had a writing hit with The Russian Debutante's Handbook and is soon to release 2040.

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on January 30, 2008 (boomark / email).