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A review by deedireads
Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Our Country Friends is a wild romp of a novel; a cultural-examination-through-dramedy with a ton of voice and character. It was a little too soon for me to relive 2020, but I respect what this book did.
For you if: You like stories with all The Drama™️.
FULL REVIEW:
Thank you to Random House for providing me with an electronic review copy of this book! It caught my eye because Salman Rushdie had blurbed it. And while it wasn’t fully comfortable, it’s definitely worth reading.
Our Country Friends is a pandemic novel. Not a pandemic — THE pandemic. It starts in March 2020, when a middle-aged Russian immigrant novelist invites a few of his friends, plus the Actor (who is working to adapt one of his novels) to his “estate” in an unnamed town up the Hudson from NYC. It follows this cast over the course of the following year, where they experience the tension of 2020 — fear of the virus, fear of others, fear for our livelihoods, a racial justice reckoning, the presidential election — as much of us did, at a secluded, disconnected remove.
It’s hard to sum this up succinctly. The book is a dramedy of sorts, a wild romp, written almost stagelike with a lot of voice and humor. But it’s not flip; it’s actually quite uncomfortably on the nose. It makes you laugh but also look at these characters and see yourself in them and remember 2020 and the undercurrent of tension, even for those who were very privileged and sheltered. Really, it’s very impressive.
I recommend this one if you like novels that employ pomp and drama for good reason, and if you aren’t afraid to look back at 2020 yet.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Our Country Friends is a wild romp of a novel; a cultural-examination-through-dramedy with a ton of voice and character. It was a little too soon for me to relive 2020, but I respect what this book did.
For you if: You like stories with all The Drama™️.
FULL REVIEW:
Thank you to Random House for providing me with an electronic review copy of this book! It caught my eye because Salman Rushdie had blurbed it. And while it wasn’t fully comfortable, it’s definitely worth reading.
Our Country Friends is a pandemic novel. Not a pandemic — THE pandemic. It starts in March 2020, when a middle-aged Russian immigrant novelist invites a few of his friends, plus the Actor (who is working to adapt one of his novels) to his “estate” in an unnamed town up the Hudson from NYC. It follows this cast over the course of the following year, where they experience the tension of 2020 — fear of the virus, fear of others, fear for our livelihoods, a racial justice reckoning, the presidential election — as much of us did, at a secluded, disconnected remove.
It’s hard to sum this up succinctly. The book is a dramedy of sorts, a wild romp, written almost stagelike with a lot of voice and humor. But it’s not flip; it’s actually quite uncomfortably on the nose. It makes you laugh but also look at these characters and see yourself in them and remember 2020 and the undercurrent of tension, even for those who were very privileged and sheltered. Really, it’s very impressive.
I recommend this one if you like novels that employ pomp and drama for good reason, and if you aren’t afraid to look back at 2020 yet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness
Moderate: Drug use and Alcohol
Minor: Ableism