Lake Success - Gary Shteyngart

Lake Success

By Gary Shteyngart

  • Release Date: 2018-09-04
  • Genre: Literary Fiction
Score: 4
4
From 276 Ratings

Description

“Spectacular.”—NPR • “Uproariously funny.”—The Boston Globe • “An artistic triumph.”—San Francisco Chronicle • “A novel in which comedy and pathos are exquisitely balanced.”—The Washington Post • “Shteyngart’s best book.”—The Seattle Times

The bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story returns with a biting, brilliant, emotionally resonant novel very much of our times.

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE AND MAUREEN CORRIGAN, NPR’S FRESH AIR AND NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • NPR • The Washington Post • O: The Oprah Magazine Mother Jones • Glamour • Library Journal • Kirkus Reviews • Newsday • Pamela Paul, KQED • Financial Times • The Globe and Mail


Narcissistic, hilariously self-deluded, and divorced from the real world as most of us know it, hedge-fund manager Barry Cohen oversees $2.4 billion in assets. Deeply stressed by an SEC investigation and by his three-year-old son’s diagnosis of autism, he flees New York on a Greyhound bus in search of a simpler, more romantic life with his old college sweetheart. Meanwhile, his super-smart wife, Seema—a driven first-generation American who craved the picture-perfect life that comes with wealth—has her own demons to face. How these two flawed characters navigate the Shteyngartian chaos of their own making is at the heart of this piercing exploration, a poignant tale of familial longing and an unsentimental ode to America.

LONGLISTED FOR THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION 

“The fuel and oxygen of immigrant literature—movement, exile, nostalgia, cultural disorientation—are what fire the pistons of this trenchant and panoramic novel. . . . [It is] a novel so pungent, so frisky and so intent on probing the dissonances and delusions—both individual and collective—that grip this strange land getting stranger.”The New York Times Book Review 

“Shteyngart, perhaps more than any American writer of his generation, is a natural. He is light, stinging, insolent and melancholy. . . . The wit and the immigrant’s sense of heartbreak—he was born in Russia—just seem to pour from him. The idea of riding along behind Shteyngart as he glides across America in the early age of Trump is a propitious one. He doesn’t disappoint.”The New York Times 

Reviews

  • Gary has done it again!

    5
    By Евгений Н.
    Fantastic read. Gary does a great job of capturing vain hedgies and their hot dog dreams.
  • Obviously not for all but, I loved it

    5
    By Lwdz
    I’m compelled to write a review because the only other two when I bought this book so were unflattering while the star rating is quite high. This is a coming of age story about a middle aged, conflicted hedge funder, with a failing marriage and an autistic child, who goes on an “On The Road” / Siddartha like journey to find himself. If you are sensitive to PC or unPC writing (because it has both), or have a general dislike for middle aged white hedge fund guys, you may not like this book but, I found it to be a great read and an original take on an old theme. I’m a female bleeding heart liberal and really loved the theme, tone, and cadence of this novel.
  • Lake Despicable

    1
    By Elbieluv
    Most despicable characters that I have ever spent pointless hours listening to. I kept hoping for an alien invasion that would eliminate the self pitying, self destructive and selfish protagonist and his equally unsympathetic wife.