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“This novel is so
immodestly vigorous, so burstingly sure of its barbaric excellence, that simply
by breathing, sweating, and standing upright it exalts itself…Compared with
most young novelists his age, who tend toward cutesy involution, Shteyngart is
a giant mounted on horseback. He ranges more widely, sees more sweepingly, and
gets where he’s going with far more aplomb.”
— New York Times Book Review
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“The exuberance of Shteyngart’s language keeps us engaged.”
— Washington Post
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“Gary Shteyngart’s
hilarious, virtuosic Absurdistan
nails the tragicomedy of foreign relations…A satire that is profoundly funny,
genuinely moving, and wholly lovable.”
— Time
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“One of the funniest
books in recent memory…Read Absurdistan
for Shteyngart’s exuberant, wise, hilarious voice…The novel is a long, funny,
heartbreaking lament for home, whatever that means, and wherever that might be.”
— Los Angeles Times Book Review
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“By turns tender,
pathetic, and hilarious…There is no one better [than Shteyngart] at skewering
social systems.”
— Wall Street Journal
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“In his hilarious
follow-up to The Russian Debutante’s
Handbook, Shteyngart proves himself to be the post-Soviet era’s own Joseph
Heller.”
— Salon.com
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“[Shteyngart is]
obscenely gifted…[His] prose never fails to pop, and nothing escapes his
satiric eye.”
— Entertainment Weekly
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“The first truly
effective satire of the twenty-first century—one that hits the right cultural
and political chords without coming off as sanctimonious or pedantic…This
strange hybrid of comedy and violence is the only appropriate response to the
global shitstorm it’s meant to mirror.”
— New York Observer
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“Shteyngart is
writing some of the funniest lines in contemporary fiction and seems capable of
doing so almost effortlessly.”
— Miami Herald
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“Masterful…[Shteyngart]
brilliantly—and with high style—treads the knife-thin line between satire and
despair.”
— Cleveland Plain Dealer
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“Absurdistan is a brilliant, fast-paced and idiosyncratic novel that
swerves frighteningly close to dead-on political reporting…Evocative, touching,
horrifying, funny, and clever all at once, this literary tragicomedy deserves
its name.”
— Seattle Times
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“Fans of Gary
Shteyngart’s first novel…will not be disappointed by his much-anticipated Absurdistan, which displays once again
this comic author’s exhilarating talent for skewing the absurdities of
contemporary culture…For all its rage and irony, Shteyngart’s Jewish heart
pumps with love and empathy, even with the approaching shadow of no towers.”
— Chicago Tribune
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“A hilariously warped
mockery of geopolitics, media, and war; a Catch-22
for the age of short attention spans.”
— People
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“Delightful…Take any
one bite of Absurdistan and be amazed
by the richness of its flavor…There is so much to like about this novel.”
— Boston Sunday Globe
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“A rare treat…There
is something disturbingly familiar about Absurdistan. Shteyngart’s wacky vision
of a post-Cold War world sinking beneath the weight of the American Century is
not far from the mark.”
— Rocky Mountain News
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“No novelist thinks
more globally than Gary Shteyngart…[He] has figured out how to be funny and
appalling at the same time, often in the same sentence. He’s also surprisingly
tender, making room at the heart of this caustic geopolitical burlesque for
both a convincing love story and a sincere longing for home.”
— Baltimore Sun
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“Absurdly funny…The
promise of The Russian Debutante’s
Handbookis fulfilled.”
— Dayton Daily News
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“Absurdistan is a novel that could have been written jointly by Kurt
Vonnegut, Chuck Palanhniuk, and Jonathan Swift—after a late night spent gorging
on Fox News and Russian vodka sweetened with onions. That is to say, it is
inventive, biting, and comically absurd in the way that only reality can be.”
— Buffalo News
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“A complex and
enthralling commentary on the world we live in…Hilarious and highbrow all at
once, [this book] is a brilliant read.”
— Austinist
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“A freakishly
intelligent, verbally giddy, frequently flying ride.”
— Elle
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“Shteyngart piles on
plots, characters, and flashbacks without losing any of the novel’s madcap
momentum, and the novel builds to a frantic pitch before coming to a breathless
halt on the day before 9/11. The result is a sendup of American values abroad
and a complex, sympathetic protagonist worthy of comparison to America’s
enduring literary heroes.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“Riotously original…Richly
satiric and filled with trenchant one-liners.”
— Library Journal (starred review)
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“Who else could tie
together nineteenth-century Russian literature, hip-hop, and
twenty-first-century oil politics and strife?”
— Booklist
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“A novel at once
riotous and melancholic, intimate, and expansive, as it tracks the parallel
arcs of personal and international events…Readers will root for Shteyngart’s
protagonist, and enjoy the adventure found in this romp of a read.”
— BookPage