Super Sad True Love Story

A Novel

By: Gary Shteyngart

Narrated by: Ali Ahn, Adam Grupper

Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Critic reviews

"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)

Great listen

Interesting premise and style that kept my attention and made me think about where things are going in our world. The performance made the book even better - it was excellent

Depressingly close to reality!

This is a unique and well written in narrated book. He chronicles the rise of consumerism, obsession with social media, and youth culture in a satirical fashion. It was written in 2010, but seems to foretell a dark future for America. This is the third time I’ve listen to it and each time I see more and more parallels to what’s actually happening in America today. It’s also a very entertaining and funny read too, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that the subject matter is hitting a little close to home these days.

Not as good or as funny as Absurdistan

I bought this book because I enjoyed Gary Shteyngart's previous book Absurdistan so much. Unfortunately I didn't like Super Sad True Love Story nearly as much. I felt that it lacked much of the biting satirical humor of Absurdistan and was mostly just depressing. I found the characters unlikable, and the mood of the book was sort of a cross between "1984" and the most annoying/depressing aspects of a Woody Allen movie.

Scathing glimpse of where we might be headed

Despite its dumb title, this is a very intelligent and scary glimpse of life in America in about 2020. The hero is a schlubby Jewish NYU grad, similar to a Woody Allen hero or the protagonist of Sam Lipske's The Ask, who can't really manage life in a hyper-capitalist-materialist America where the US dollar has lost most of its value, your sex appeal and credit rating are instantly displayed on iPhone-type apps as soon as you walk into a bar, and women walk around in see-through clothing.

Curiously, there is a prescient Occupy Wall Street-type movement that goes on throught the story. The novel's fears???that the generation growing up now will be utterly vacuous and materialistic and allow the US to crumble??? seem a little dated only 3 years after it was written. At least I hope they do.

Readers are OK. Ali Ahn is trying to sound like a vapid young woman, and that's more annoying than amusing.

A Novel For The 99%

This book is a well-written and preformed warning, one that we need to take seriously. Set in an undefined near-future, Shteyngart paints a portrait of a dystopia we are already teetering on. In the book, the US is dominated by a totalitarian bureaucracy that is desperately trying to keep it's economy afloat with complex financing schemes that remain incomprehensible to most Americans (sound familiar?). The day to day world is dominated by a computer that everyone carries with them, clogged with useless facts and celebrity gossip. "News" is opinion, and the principle opinion that matters is your ranking that is constantly being updated by a mysterious algorithm. Our hapless hero, Lennie, falls for the "ideal" girl—a young, slim Asian woman, obsessed by fashion and her ranking. The affair is doomed (I'm not giving anything away, it's in the title), yet Shteyngart manages to keep us involved and invested in the story.

Ali Ahn does a great job preforming the role of the self-absorbed Eunice Park. Adam Grupper as Lennie has a much more difficult task (Lennie is a bit of a schlimazel), yet rises to it quite well. Eunice grows a little bit during the course of the book - she is very young, after all. But Lennie, nearing 40, still hasn't learned to question his surroundings or his choices — he stands as a warning to us all.

I was surprised to read the reviews of others who seemed to think nothing happens in the second half of the book. This is the part where everything comes to a head; the affair of the main title reaches it's inevitable end, a major character comes to a Brazil-like end, the dystopian society crumbles in spectacular fashion. This book is haunting and memorable—one of the best listens of the year for me.

A little too meandering for my taste

What did you like best about Super Sad True Love Story? What did you like least?

I liked the overall concept of the story. I least liked the minutia, which I understand was meant to color the story, but I felt I had to just bear it until the story progressed again.

Would you recommend Super Sad True Love Story to your friends? Why or why not?

I would recommend it to some friends; to the ravenous readers that enjoy consuming all novels.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

I thought the narration was well done.

Could you see Super Sad True Love Story being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No

Any additional comments?

This was a pleasant way to spend some summer hours.

Great performance, annoying story

I really liked the way this novel started. It was interesting and original. When the "love story" started, I found myself losing interest. The main character becomes unlikable as he gets involved with an extremely unpleasant girl. I was not worried particularly about any of their fates and kind of wanted to get it over with. I was also annoyed by the way the author rhapsodizes about Eunice's thinness for pages and pages, but then makes fun of the way women are obsessed with weight. There were a lot of genuinely funny parts, though, and I thought the performers were really exceptional, as well.

Grew on me

I came back to this and gave it an extra star because I thought about it so much after listening. As I was listening, I was bothered by a lot of little things that I thought took away from the believable-ness of future created. In retrospect, that shouldn't matter. It is a good story with a lot of keen insight.

Insightful, Touching, Satiric AF

The author’s ability to wield kindness and compassion towards the human condition, while simultaneously bludgeoning a toxic American culture is impressive and artfully done.

Disappointed

No amount of creativity could get me past the gross misogyny in this novel. I can't recommend it to anyone.