Super Sad True Love Story

A Novel

De: Gary Shteyngart

Narrado por: Ali Ahn, Adam Grupper

Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, creates a compelling reality in this tale about an illiterate America in the not-too-distant future. Lenny Abramov may just be penning the world’s last diary. Which is good, because while falling in love with a rather unpleasant woman and witnessing the fall of a great empire, Lenny has a lot to write about.

©2010 Gary Shteyngart (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Shteyngart's earnestly struggling characters—along with a flurry of running gags—keep the nightmare tour of tomorrow grounded. A rich commentary on the obsessions and catastrophes of the information age and a heartbreaker worthy of its title, this is Shteyngart's best yet." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Full-tilt and fulminating satirist Shteyngart is mordant, gleeful, and embracive as he funnels today's follies and atrocities into a devilishly hilarious, soul-shriveling, and all-too plausible vision of a ruthless and crass digital dystopia in which techno-addled humans are still humbled by love and death." ( Booklist)

“It’s not easy to summarize Shteyngart; there’s so much satirical gunpowder packed into every sentence that the effect gets lost in the short version. But basically, this is a love story [that is] ridiculously witty and painfully prescient, but more than either of those, it’s romantic." ( Time)

All around fantastic

If you could sum up Super Sad True Love Story in three words, what would they be?

Thought provoking, relevant, emotionally poignant.

What did you like best about this story?

It was a great cautionary tale. It swept me away into this futuristic world. The characters tugged at my heart as they were expertly and elegantly brought to life by these two narrators. At first I thought Lenny's voice would annoy me, but as I listened, it was actually perfect for the character. The female's performance could not have been more excellent. This was well cast--the actors were phenomenal.

Have you listened to any of Ali Ahn and Adam Grupper ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No. But I would like to listen to more of Ali Ahn in particular.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

It was all quite stirring. I loved every "page."

Any additional comments?

Highly recommended for story and narration.

Great novel, great Audible voicing (both readers are excellent.

One of the great ( and most disturbing) novels of our time. Tragicomic satire on America’s rupture and our tech future. Unforgettable characters.

Somewhere Between Love and Hate

A lot was of things in this novel were polarizing toward me —the things I hated about it were (ironicly) things I either saw in myself or things I hoped others didn’t.

To use a compliment sandwich, the epistolary novel is something of a dying art form. So it is welcome treat to read one intended for a modern audience.

That being said I found the protagonist —Lenny Abramov, to be insufferably unlikely, and while I know that is probably the intent, he reeked of author self insert qualities while brining no endearing attributes. While he is not a bad person and does nothing ethically wrong —he is particularly a spineless goober of a man with little to no endearing who brings nothing to the table in his pursuit the seemingly vapid Eunice Park.

It is Eunice, that I —surprisingly, found sympathetic. Hidden behind her materialistic and conceited demeanor, is a person who truly cares for both her family and others. Against all logic wasting what seemed to be a good less six months of her life baby sitting the both helpless and hopeless Lenny, until the next —and questionably better, meal ticket comes along (though Joshi’s fixation on her is even more creepy). In the end —while I do agree it was cruel and cold for her to leave Lenny the way she did, I found it hard to blame her. The country was collapsing around her and she had a lifeline being thrown to her and her family. That and Lenny adding nothing to her, except being an emotional burden. His only positive trait being “smart” for reading a bunch of old Russian books. I was actually really relieved in the end to learn that Eunice ended up with someone other than those two men —she deserved better.

I felt Lenny’s simping to be both distasteful and uncomfortable to read. And I really didn’t feel bad for him despite the underhanded nature of her and Joshi’s betrayal at the end. Little lesson, kiddies no woman likes to be “simped” over —and they will always leave no matter how “nice” you are.

Which leads me to how unbelievable I felt the situation that drove most of the romantic plot was. No matter what excuses given: Eunice going back to America to protect her mother and sister from a potentially sexually abusive father, or keeping her little sister out of an increasingly volatile political situation, I found her deciding to “shack up” with Lenny —a guy she barely knew, so unlikely it took me out of the story.

Now while I found the dystopian subplot of an America on the brink —and later actually collapsing, to be a fascinating premise, Shteyngart is so vague on what is actually happening, that I’m left more confused than anything else. Now, if this were a different story —one where there is a given reason for the vagueness: like a communication blackout, or the characters being actively disinterested as the events play out in the distant background , I could understand and even appreciate it. But the political backdrop of the Bipartisans, Chinese mega-corporations, war in Venezuela, the immortality project, and the aftermath of the “rupture” are so central to the plot that a consistent and coherent explanation is warranted —and yet never comes.

To end with a compliment, I —despite being a heartbroken man myself, really loved the chapters from Eunice’s perspective. And despite her many —many flaws, found her an endearing sympathetic character who painfully reminded me of a few women I loved before. The actress who does her narration really nailed it. I also liked the epilogue and felt it was a fitting end for all three characters…but I’ve gone on long enough.

Shteyngart writes very powerful prose, and I was particularly driven by how he wrote Lenny’s interactions with his friend’s wife —Grace (one of his few sympathetic moments). Really gave me John Wayne in The Searchers vibes —but seemed ill fitting for a character of Lenny’s low stature.

What are you people thinking?

His sad love story has far less to do with the woman than it does with this great but struggling country. Sadly, in ways he too accurately describes, we are approaching many of these dead ends. Best listen this year.

Such a delight!

Would you consider the audio edition of Super Sad True Love Story to be better than the print version?

I've been meaning to read this author for a while, and am so glad to have finally gotten around to it via audiobook. The narrator enhanced what is already a brilliant book with endearing characters by 50% or so.

Which character – as performed by Ali Ahn and Adam Grupper – was your favorite?

Eunice Park.