- Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart. (A NYTimes review here
) This was even better than I anticipated, and I'd been looking forward to reading this book for over a year. Maybe two? It was always checked out! It's kind of impossible to not compare it with A Confederacy of Dunces because the main character, Misha, is kind of what Ignatius would have been if he was the son of the 1,238th richest man in Russia. They're very similar both physically and mentally, although Misha gets more character developement and faster, I think. Anyway, apart from just being good, the novel totally appeals to my sense of "Heehee, I get that joke that is referencing something from the USSR!", plus the book has a middle-aged Armenian born in Glendale who can't get away from his mom. So, you know, yeah x) But really, instead of St. Petersburg, Misha calls his home city St. Leninsburg. I mean, that's just brilliant. The review says you can open the book at random and quote, and it's right. But I'd rather quote from the Prologue right now:
"This is a book about love, The next 338 pages are dedicated with that cloying Russian affection that passes for real warmth to my Beloved Papa, to the city of New York, to my sweet impoverished girlfriend in the South Bronx, and to the United States Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS)."
I recommend the book without reservations :)
I recommend the book without reservations :)
And 3 Pratchett books, my first ones, all from the Discworld series:
- Small Gods. Read this one first. Fascinating and hilarious, but I guess I was expecting that. In hindsight, I think this had less of a complicated plot? Or at least it didn't branch out as much.
- The Last Hero; illustrated by Paul Kidby. Much shorter, but the illustrations were fun. Sillier than Small Gods but not necessarily funnier.
- The Fifth Elephant. Read this one today. The plot sometimes got to be a bit too much, but it didn't stand in the way of enjoying the substance of the book. Felt more like something from a series, but possibly because I was already recognizing names/places from the previous two books. But also probably because it has a bigger set of main character. And I'm already a shameless Carrot/Angua shipper. I CAN'T HELP IT. I love Carrot. So yeah, definitely picking up more Discworld in the future, and if you're going to guess that I'll try to get the ones with Carrot in them, you'll be, uh, right. That was anticlimactic.
