Super Sad True Love Story

by Gary Shteyngart

[Hillary]

This was the second book that surprised me this year. I have to admit I have not read his earlier work so when this started making headlines I thought, “what's up with all the fuss over a love story?’ Of course this is not to knock love stories. There is some that blew me away. The time travelers wife is one.
Super Sad Love Story is a dystopian novel set about 50 years into the future. People get nanotechnology to prevent them from getting old and dying. I thought this bit was a good play on Americans fear of getting old. I mean think about it. We eat a certain way to avoid looking old, we buy special creams at ridiculous prices to reduce signs  of aging and a host of other stuff. This play in the book only illustrates the heights that people will go to to avoid becoming or looking old.
In the book there is also a war in Venezuela that can be read to mean the current war in Afaganstain. The war is becoming increasingly more expensive to pay for and the soldiers don't always get paid. The not getting paid part is also an excellent way of foreshadowing what might happen. I am not saying that he has a  political axe to grind but it is a brilliant artistic way to show what fiscal responsibility  and wayward cost of war can do.
The most brilliant part or should I say disheartening is the way he portrays America at the edge of fiscal collapse and the world that ensues. People carry these things that sound like a Smartphone but buy the descriptions in the book are more..smartphoney. People can stream their lives and get ratings in everything from Fuckablity to hotness. Which is not so far fetched idea. We are getting close to that now with face book and such.
The author dose a fantastic job of world  building. He constructs things is such a way that it is not to hard to imagine this is what America could look like in the near future. He had the uncanny ability to even make the financial collapse in the book look like it may happen in the next 50 years.
Then there is the love story.
As love stories go this one is not that bad. It just so predictable. When he introduced to characters in the book i could tell what was going to happen. I don't profess to ne an expert on love stories but when you built the rest of the book up brilliantly at least have a little more substance to the love story or rather love triangle that ensues.
The ending was also a bit of a let down after the rest of the book.
It all ended in a predictable way. I felt that with the build up of the rest of the book it could went out with a bang. It didn't
Overall this was a book I LOVED. it had it’s short comings but I think all books do.This review was originally posted on Adventures in Never Never Land