[.ca] Russian Debutantes Handbook (ISBN 1573229881)

From Amazon.com:
Vladimir Girshkin, a likeable Russian immigrant, searches for love, a decent job, and a credible self-identity in Gary Shteyngart's debut novel, The Russian Debutante's Handbook. With a doctor-father of questionable ethics and a manic, banker mother, Vladimir avoids his suburban parents and their desire that he pursue the almighty dollar as proof of success. Vladimir gets by as an immigration clerk, eking out a living in a cruddy New York City apartment while accumulating an array of quirky acquaintances, from a wealthy but disheveled old man (who claims his electric fan speaks to him) desperate for citizenship to Challa, a portly S/M queen. As a love interest, Challa is replaced by Francesca, a graduate student whose friends welcome Vladimir for the status he brings their bohemian clique, and whose parents encourage them to shack up (she lives at home) as visible proof she can maintain a steady relationship. The Russian Debutante's Handbook is a quirky amalgam of dead-on American absurdities, albeit with somewhat stereotypical characters. While Vladimir flounders with how to improve his state, he becomes an expatriate in a trendy European city, becomes somewhat of a mobster himself, and generally has a good time. While many of the central characters remain elusively thin, Vladimir is a delight, and Shteyngart's wit is merciless: Russian women wear "wedding cakes of blond hair" and graduate students lounge in a bar "as if waiting for funding to appear." Reminiscent of Gogol and other Russian satirists, The Russian Debutante's Handbook is a genuine, sublime social commentary. --Michael Ferch

Good characters and humor, plot that bogs down in the end:
The characterization of Vladimir Girshkin is excellent, from how he looks and dresses (which morphs through the book), to how he thinks about himself, his family, his ethniticity, to how he perceives the other Russians and Americans around him. Many humoristic moments as Vladimir, in an effort to get himself out of a dead-end life, gets in with deeper and crazier schemes to extract money and respect from different criminal elements, all the while building (or rebuilding?) the ego inside the man. The characterization, as a trip of self-discovery, is very well written. But I did find myself forcing to finish. I did end up caring about the characters, esp. Vladimir and Morgan in the end, so I pushed on wanting to see what happened to them. But the plot bogged down, taking turns that made the humourously ludicrous ones in the beginning of the story seem normal. You have to suspend your reality checks for a novel like this, but it just got harder to do toward the end. The clever literary references and play on words at the later half of the novel didn't make me chuckle or think as much as the ones in the beginning. I will read Mr. Shtenyngart's next novel with anticipation. Writing any novel is hard work, and I'm glad Gary pressed on with number 2.

Hilarious, a talented witty comic writer!:
This is so N.Y! a wonderful side splitting (albeit long) novel.

Different, but not hilarious:
Shtenyngart follows a young man from New York to "Prava," an invented city in Eastern Europe. Our hero is not particularly moral, and gets into many interesting adventures as a result. Masquerading as a highschooler leads him to flee the country and begin a new life of pyramid schemes among a kind of Russian mafia. The book is wonderful because it is different and wholly original. It is a story that has not been told before, and I enjoyed it as such. However, the book advertises itself to be hilarious, and I rarely found myself laughing and only occasionally smiling. I was amused, but quietly. For me, the book was funny at times but hardly the height of comedy.

A treat:
I was recommended this book by a friend of mine. She had already read it, and knowing about my love of Russia and Eastern Europe, figured that it would be up my alley. As I started the book, I wasn't so sure, but even if the story does become a bit fantastical, it does make for a good read. In Vladimir, Shteyngart does capture something very universal in his sense of not belonging. Of course, Vladimir assumes that most of this has to do with him being a Russian-Jew immigrant to America, and lacking the kind of hard drive and ambition that his mother has that got the family to America in the first place. When Vladimir gets in too deep with both the finer things and the more base things in American life, he makes it to "Prava" (a slightly fictionalised Prague) of the early 1990's, ostensibly to rip off young American expats whose families have enough money to support the kind of bohemian culture these young people are trying to create there. However, even though a good number of the Americans there fully fit into Vladimir's picture that he's carefully constructed over the years, it seems that every once in awhile, there are people whom one meets that will not fit at all into that perception. And maybe, just maybe there's a chance for Vladimir to find a place in "American" life. For me, being able to read a book in English with the "outside looking in" kind of perspective on the craziness of a lot of Americans, without being mean, was quite fun. Also, it was fun to read a story that really does include the world past the borders of the US.

A Droll, sarcastic farce-Rollicking good fun of a read.:
The Russian Debutante's Handbook tells the tale of one Vladimir Girshkin, a Russian immigrant with a lot of negative inertia "living", if that's a word you can use for his pathetic existence-in New York. Vladimir is the antithesis of his high powered parents, both energetic if unorthodox and unethical professionals (he a doctor, she an investment banker), for whom, in the traditional Russian way, he loves with unrefined loathing. Plodding along as a lifer immigration clerk, he organizes a phony naturalization ceremony for a "client"-a whacko old man who communes with the otherworld through an electric fan-and suddenly finds himself the beneficiary of the largess of the mans son-a Russian gangster. Shuttled off to a trendy yet depressing eastern European city where the son holds court, Vladimir proceeds to work his way into the Russian gangster life himself-with unfortunate results. This is a sly, witty farcical send-up of the Russian/Eastern European immigrant experience in these days of eastward EU expansion. Although many of the characters never attain a status much beyond the stage of caricature, Vladimir and his family are wonderfully drawn. The situational comedy is truly superb and the action is faced paced and compelling. Shteyngart has an ear for dialog and a wonderfully droll, sardonic writing style that perfectly matches the farce as it develops. The book is very funny in an understated sort of way-actually, thinking about it I'd say its vastly amusing rather than funny. You never fall off the bed laughing, rather you find yourself engaged in what seems to be an eternal chuckle. All in all, an excellent beach/summer time sort of read.