Little Failure

Starred review from October 28, 2013
One afternoon in 1996, a book titled St. Petersburg: Architecture of the Tsars becomes Shteyngart's madeleine, carrying him back in time and memory to his childhood in St. Petersburg and launching him on a career of writing about the past in his novels (Absurdistan). In his typical laugh-aloud approach, the acclaimed novelist carries us with him on his journey, from his birth in Leningrad and his decision to become a writer at age five to his immigration to America and his family's settling in New York City in 1979. Adolescent misadventure, his days at Oberlin College, his psychoanalysis, and his struggles after college to wend his way through the workaday world toward becoming a writer round out the trip. Shteyngart spends much of his pre-adolescence glued to the television set, watching shows like Gilligan's Island, which causes him to ask himself questions about American culture: "Is it really possible that a country as powerful as the United States would not be able to locate two of its best citizens lost at sea, to wit the millionaire and his wife?" Shteyngart's self-deprecating humor contains the sharp-edged twist of the knife of melancholy in this take of a young man "desperately trying to have a history, a past."

In 1970, President Jimmy Carter traded American grain in exchange for the immigration of Soviet Jews. Enter young Igor Shteyngart and his family. Jonathan Todd Ross had to meet quite a challenge while narrating Shteyngart's memoir filled with humor, sarcasm, self-deprecation, and personal triumphs--and succeed he does in representing the author with pizzazz. Ross tells how an immigrant family came to America, plunging a little asthmatic boy into a harsh world of unacceptance by his classmates and sometimes himself. Shteyngart had to dig within himself to find a place in the world, despite his mother's disappointment in his choices--she referred to him lovingly as "Failurchka," or "little failure." Todd Ross captures the victory Shteyngart eventually received when his literary voice found its rightful place in the universe after an uphill journey through uncertainty and epic self-doubt. B.J.P. (c) AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

April 15, 2014
Shteyngart's ("Absurdistan") latest title is a rambling memoir, as hairy and pungent as the giant fur coat young Igor/Gary wears and is ridiculed for as a seven-year-old Russian Jewish immigrant. Unlike the coat in question, "Little Failure" has considerable charms as it follows young Igor's transformation into Gary. We begin with his asthmatic early childhood in Leningrad, follow his family's 1979 journey to the United States, and ultimately conclude with his return visit to Leningrad many years later, accompanied by his still-challenging parents and in search of the answer to a small but pivotal mystery of his own psychology. Whatever shame young Shteyngart may have felt as a boy, as a writer, he doesn't shy away from the most cringe-worthy but hilariously character-revealing details. The portraits of his parents are a high point of the book--appropriately complex, confusing, unflattering, sympathetic and almost helplessly affectionate. Jonathan Todd Ross is a game reader, taking on Shteyngart's parents' accents, the Talking Heads, and children's lullabies with aplomb. VERDICT Shteyngart fans will love this. Be prepared for an explicit, embarrassing, profane journey that is ultimately winningly human. ["A self-examination that is entertaining and devastating in equal measure," read the review of the Random hc, "LJ" 12/13.]--Heather Malcolm, Bow, WA

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