Word: absurdistan
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...making fun of. A case in point would be Gary Shteyngart's first novel, The Russian Debutante's Handbook, a charming-enough outing about expatriates in Prague that has approximately one joke that gets steadily less funny over time. An exception would be Shteyngart's second book, Absurdistan (Random House; 352 pages), a satire that is profoundly funny, genuinely moving and wholly lovable...
Thirty-year-old Misha Borisovich Vainberg, the hero of Absurdistan, is in every way and dimension an exaggerated character: grossly fat, filthy rich, loudly sentimental and operatically miserable as only a Russian can be. Vainberg lives in St. Petersburg, but his spiritual home is America, which he adores beyond all reason. Unfortunately, he's stuck in Russia because of trouble with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Pines Misha: "I am an American impounded in a Russian's body...