A review by glennmiller5309
Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart

5.0

Shteyngart's book takes place during the opening months of the pandemic as a group of seven friends hide themselves away on a compound on the Hudson River. While this book examines the complexities of relationships and friendships -- old friendships -- it is also a treatise on the creative spirit and the fragile and precarious act of creative expression. As in his previous novels, Shteyngart aptly displays his wonderful sense of humor, but comedy is not so much the main point of this book, as is the sheer expression of humanity in a difficult time. There are neither specific questions nor black-and-white answers in this novel, making it that much more representational of the multi-hued layers of life.