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The Russian Debutante's Handbook
by Gary Shteyngart

The Russian Debutante's Handbook Cover

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Review-a-Day   (What is Review-a-Day?)

"The hardest thing to do in a novel, it seems to me, especially a first novel, is to get your characters moving. (Note to first novelists: Beckett is not so great to imitate early on.) But The Russian Debutante's Handbook succeeds on this score and just about every other one I can think of right now. So let's call this superb debut the real thing — an acute, accurate, intelligent look at America in the nineties." Adrienne Miller, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Vladimir Girshkin — twenty-five-year-old Russian immigrant, "Little Failure" according to his high-achieving mother, unhappy lover to fat dungeon mistress Challah (his "little Challah bread"), and lowly clerk at the bureaucratic Emma Lazarus Immigrant Absorption Society — is about to have his first break. When the unlikely figure of a wealthy but psychotic old Russian war hero appears and introduces Vladimir to his best friend, who just happens to be a small electric fan, Vladimir has little inkling that he is about to embark on an adventure of unrelenting lunacy — one that overturns his assumptions about what it means to be an immigrant in America.

The Russian Debutante's Handbook takes us from New York City's Lower East Side to the hip frontier wilderness of Prava — the Eastern European Paris of the '90s — whose grand and glorious beauty is marred only by the shadow of the looming statue of Stalin's foot. There, with the encouragement of the Groundhog, a murderous (but fun-loving) Russian mafioso, Vladimir infiltrates the American ex-pat community with the hope of defrauding his young middle-class compatriots by launching a pyramid scheme that's as stupid as it is brilliant. Things go swimmingly at first, but nothing is quite as it seems in Prava, and Vladimir learns that in order to reinvent himself, he must first discover who he really is.

Review:

"The Russian Debutante's Handbook is a blisteringly funny, almost frighteningly energetic novel of adventure, perfidy and even a car chase or two....[There is an] irresistible blend of the grandiose and the crass in Shteyngart's post-Soviet characters....Unlike the immigrants in more genteel literary fiction, [Vladimir] won't find this to be a subdued and poignant struggle. Before this dilemma is resolved, there will be tragic moments, yes, and violence, and, heaven knows, lots of exclamation points. These are Russians, after all." Laura Miller, Salon.com

Review:

"[A] smart debut novel....Although the satire on the expatriate American community is a little too easy, Shteyngart's Vladimir remains an impressive piece of work, an amoral buffoon who energizes this remarkably mature work." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"Though slightly chilly toward its large cast of characters, the novel is redeemed by its thematic sweep and Vladimir's engaging brio. Ambitious, funny, intelligent, in love with irony and literary allusions, as if by a lighter Nabokov." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"Gary Shteyngart...has produced a sardonic, moving and ingeniously crafted update of earlier sagas of upward-struggling American newcomers." Washington Post

Review:

"The rampaging narrative is festooned on every page with glittering one-liners, improbably apt similes and other miniature pleasures." Elle

Review:

"A brilliant, funny debut describing the vicissitudes of immigration today, as experienced by the hero, a young Russian-American." Harper's Bazaar

Review:

"[An] entertaining, satirical first novel..." Frank Caso, Booklist

Synopsis:

This national bestseller is a wildly original, brilliantly crafted novel about a young Russian immigrant's misadventures while trying to figure out what it means to be an American.

Synopsis:

Rowdy, ribald, funny...This superb debut [is] the real thing.
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About the Author

Gary Shteyngart was born in Leningrad and moved to the States with his family when he was seven. He currently teaches fiction writing at Hunter College.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
stoutout, September 15, 2006 (view all comments by stoutout)
Fans of Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem and Jeffrey Eugenides?not to mention Philip Roth and Saul Bellow?will find much to admire in Gary Shteyngart?s hyperactive debut novel. Simply put, Shteyngart is a natural, with a rambunctious prose style that alone is worth the price of admission. Add to that a hilarious story and one of the most appealing protagonists to come along in years?Vladimir Girshkin, ?part P.T. Barnum, part V.I. Lenin, the man who would conquer half of Europe (albeit the wrong half)??and the result is one exhilirating read. Sentence for sentence, Shteyngart is one of the best prose stylists working today.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781573229883
Author:
Shteyngart, Gary
Publisher:
Riverhead Books
Location:
New York
Subject:
General
Subject:
Immigrants
Subject:
Young men
Subject:
New York
Subject:
Russian Americans
Subject:
Bildungsromans
Subject:
General Fiction
Copyright:
2003
Edition Description:
1st Riverhead trade pbk. ed.
Series Volume:
107-12
Publication Date:
April 29, 2003
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
496
Dimensions:
8.18x5.10x1.07 in. .86 lbs.
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