Absurdistan

Shteyngart's second novel (The Russian Debutante's Handbook, 2002, was the first) is a wild ride that follows its protagonist and narrator, Misha Vainburg, from St. Petersburg (or St. Leninsburg as he prefers to call it) to a tiny country in the Caucasus called Absurdsvani, with occasional detours via flashbacks to New York City and Misha's midwestern alma mater, Accidental College.

The Washington Post - Josip Novakovich

The novel is grounded in a noble literary lineage. You can hear echoes of Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel, with its glorification of size and appetites. Misha is a man of leisure on the order of Goncharov's Oblomov, who spends most of his time in bed. Although it's not written with as much compassion as A Confederacy of Dunces (justifiably so -- do we need to sympathize with the oligarchy?), Absurdi stan exhibits a similar sense of humor mixed with sharp insights into the absurdity of the modern world.

Russian expatriate Gary Shteyngart has only published two novels, but both are so trenchantly insightful, so observant, original, and flat-out funny that he is already regarded by many as a major literary force. Shteyngart s debut, The Russian Debutante s Handbook, was the recipient of the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction.