Imagine my embarrassment when I looked up Gary Shteyngart online, right after finishing Our Country Friends, to discover that such things as “book trailers” exist. And that, in Shteyngart’s case, these trailers contain both superstars (James Franco, Ben Stiller) and literary superstars (Jay McInerney, Jeffrey Eugenides, Edmund White, Mary Gaitskill).
No wonder my own book never sold that much, I thought, as I watched Shteyngart reveal that he doesn’t actually know how to read, or teach a class on how to act at a Paris Review party, or as I watched Gaitskill finally admit that it’s hard for female writers to separate their brains from their breasts (ugh, so true). I was straight on to WhatsApp, asking Edna, Colm, Anne and Monsieur Banville to help a sister out (keep an eye on YouTube, dear readers).
I reveal all of this, not only to expose the book trailer phenomenon to those equally as ignorant as myself, but to give a taste of the satirical bent of Sheyngart’s writing, which is on display yet again in his latest offering, already a New York Times bestseller.
Set in a vaguely Chekhovian country estate in rural upstate New York, Our Country Friends chronicles the lives and relationships of a set of friends weathering out the first wave of the pandemic together. Here, we have Shteyngart at his finest, managing to master, with astute intelligence, the delicate task of depicting American multiculturalism (his “cast” are, largely, various second-generation immigrants), literary allusion (Uncle Vanya trickles along throughout), as well as recreating the irritations, absurdities and apocalyptic horror of the early days of the virus, combined with the violence and terror of American politics. All this while keeping it laugh-out-loud funny.
Shteyngart’s ability is mesmerising, almost to the point of distraction. (Is it too well written? Too perfectly crafted?) Yet, luckily, the humour saves it from ever becoming tiresomely pristine. His grasp of both the minutiae and the meta of contemporary American experience reminded me of Jonathan Franzen (who’s also in one of the trailers).
Ultimately, in Our Country Friends Shteyngart brings vividly to life a group of characters who go through real, significant change, and who experience Tröö Emotions (read the book to get that allusion). In fact, just read the book – no trailer necessary.
