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  • Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel
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Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
715 global ratings
5 star
49%
4 star
22%
3 star
13%
2 star
6%
1 star
10%
Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel

Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel

byGary Shteyngart
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Top positive review

All positive reviews›
W. Paul
5.0 out of 5 starsThis book has it all
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2012
I was staying in someone else's apartment for a couple days and looked around for something to read. I had never heard of this book nor its author before .... The author varies between the profane and the profound. At first I was put off by what seemed excessive honesty (!) but I began to realize there are things that need to be said (about life) and this guy says them. He obviously has a fantastic time exercising his brain and creativity when writing, and he certainly has strong views. There are no sacred cows, except maybe (gulp) ... love.

The title is a true reflection of the style and plot.
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Top critical review

All critical reviews›
Bartolo
3.0 out of 5 starsWanted It to Be Better
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2010
Few of the reviews here refer to Shteyngart's other novels, and perhaps that's telling. The resemblances between "Absurdistan" and this satire--the unattractive protragonist and his love interest in the foreground, dystopic corporate empire in the background--are too obvious to miss, and therein perhaps the shortcomings here. When a novel is less than wonderful, even an amateur wants to play doctor, and perhaps the problem I can identify is that Shteyngart's favored scenario became a little too formulaic on the second go-round. Or perhaps I was charmed the first time, a little less disarmed the second, or had unconsciously raised my expectations. Or perhaps it's the times? 2010 seems decades beyond 2006; we are in the midst of a world-wide recession and beset with a bought-and-paid-for government that obsesses on serving the rich. It's hard to laugh, or to be induced to laugh, at anything that isn't totally off the wall.

The dystopia of "Super Sad" is hardly much of a leap from where we are now. I scoured reviews of the book, looking for someone who could nail the problem for me, and came upon this paragraph from Ron Charles of the Washington Post:

"Perhaps the saddest aspect of this "Super Sad True Love Story" is that you can smell Shteyngart sweating to stay one step ahead of the decaying world he's trying to satirize. It's an almost impossible race now that the exhibitionism of ordinary people has lost its ability to shock us. Just try coming up with something creepier than middle school girls wearing shorts with the word "Juicy" across their bottoms, or imagine a fashion line cruder than FCUK (Shteyngart comes close). His description of friends getting together after work to text other friends is taking place today in every D.C. restaurant. And how can you parody the TV news coverage when George Stephanopoulos has already presented a straight-faced report on Lindsay Lohan's obscene fingernail stencil?"

Another personal diagnosis is that the novel suffers from overambition. Shteyngart's satiric world clatters and clanks with inventions that constantly make us exporers of a world we should inhabit along with his characters, but he never quite succeeds in creating an environment for them--we remain tourists while he necessarily feels obliged to describe the sights. To get us to inhabit the landscape, to make it real to us, perhaps the novel should have been twice as long; but if that is what was necessary, so be it. A mere sketch of an alien landscape, even one not much more than an exaggeration of our own, is frustrating: I wanted to feel the ambience, be haunted. But it wasn't real, even granting the fact that I live in New York and am familiar with the book's described geography.

Moreover, the mix of humor and disaster didn't work for me. Lenny's friends are murdered, the disenfranchised get machine-gunned or clubbed on the head, and yet we are supposed to laugh in the next scene. A tall order, one I don't think Shteyngart pulls off. With a consistency of satiric tone--if the deaths themselves had been outlandish?-- it might have worked, but I didn't find that consistency.

It could be that Steyngart's clown face is forced and stems from undermediated psychic needs. Lenny's "diary" entries in the novel have a literary power that the rest of the novel lacks, perhaps because Lenny, the source of the humor, is himself quite serious. Maybe this is a Shteyngart voice that will find a satisfying outlet later.

On balance this was an interesting book, and worth the time; but I finished it thinking it might have been (choose one) more powerful, more devastating an indictment, or more moving, or certainly funnier. But as a tossed salad, at least this time, the flavors competed rather than complemented.
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From the United States

W. Paul
5.0 out of 5 stars This book has it all
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2012
Verified Purchase
I was staying in someone else's apartment for a couple days and looked around for something to read. I had never heard of this book nor its author before .... The author varies between the profane and the profound. At first I was put off by what seemed excessive honesty (!) but I began to realize there are things that need to be said (about life) and this guy says them. He obviously has a fantastic time exercising his brain and creativity when writing, and he certainly has strong views. There are no sacred cows, except maybe (gulp) ... love.

The title is a true reflection of the style and plot.
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captdan
5.0 out of 5 stars Not your yenta's dystopia
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2012
Verified Purchase
I won't bother to tell you what the book is about. OK, I will. It's about the future, the very near future and -- based on the trends we see on the news, in our entertainment and developments in our language -- a future that is entirely possible. If I were a depressive, I'd say inevitable.

As I read the book, it clicked along at the 3-star level, then 4, and finally, when the author links everything, it's a five.

Funny, depressing, strange and familiar, it's the junction where Orwell channels Woody Allen. Or vice versa.
9 people found this helpful
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Amy
4.0 out of 5 stars Essential Modern Satire
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2019
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This book is set mostly in New York City in the near future when the US is on the brink of economic collapse, being more-or-less owned China, and to a lesser extent Norway and Saudi Arabia. Everyone is attached/addicted to their mobile devices, which automatically displays to everyone your credit score and "fuckability" rating. Privacy is non-existent. People broadcast their lives to the world. Inequality is astounding to the point where the lower class (low net worth individuals) lives in Central Park. Reading much less owning books is socially looked down on. The main protagonist Lenny works for a company that is trying to convince high net work individuals to invest in their company that has unproven means of human immortality.

I really, really liked this book. As satire against Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, digital life in general, fad diets and bogus healthcare, plus a massively incompetent government, authoritarian control, and lack of civil liberties, the novel is spot-on. It's damn near a modern 1984 meets Fahrenheit 451. I kept checking to see if this book was written in 2018, only to be amazed that it was written in 2010. The themes haven't aged at all - in fact they've gotten more relevant. Further, there's the recurring theme of first generation offspring of immigrants trying to live up to their family's hopes and dreams, as both Lenny and his much younger girlfriend Eunice, are children of Russian and Korean immigrants, respectively.

I didn't give it five stars as the story itself lags, especially in the later chapters. I kept wanting Lenny to be less pathetic and to grow a spine, and while Eunice does start to change, she's ultimately shallow and just looking out for herself and her family (though in the context of authoritarianism, there's something to be said for that). Overall, a very, very good book, essential satire for the modern world.
8 people found this helpful
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G. Butler
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece in the vein of CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2016
Verified Purchase
The author is a genius. I read this book years ago when it was published and didn't have the life experience or intelligence to appreciate it. Now I do. It belongs at the top of the list of great literature.
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ACThomas
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome dystopian read
Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2016
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I loved it! Reminded me a lot of Brave New World but with a modern twist.
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hbmusiclover
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2015
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A very interesting approach, well crafted and absorbing. Biting wit.
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S Asher
5.0 out of 5 stars Like a Ride
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2014
Verified Purchase
I never wanted this book to end. I've bought a half a dozen copies for my friends already, I don't want to not share it. Besides, it was so funny, I need everyone I know to be in on all the jokes. But much more than being funny, it's also very scary, very sad and very, very astute. The protagonist is so lovable in his sensitivities and pointless pursuit of a not-particularly-alluring woman, it's heartbreaking and enlightening at the same time. The book was a lot like being on a ride. It was just exhilarating.
It's also very sticky. You'll find yourself thinking about it for weeks.
One person found this helpful
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Shelby W
4.0 out of 5 stars Paints a terrifying picture of exactly wehre were headed with technology
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2017
Verified Purchase
Paints a terrifying picture of the future; where technology is king and privacy doesn't exist. Well written and completely believable. I can't walk past someone texting and walking without thinking of think book and the implications of allowing technology to rule your life. Read this, it will change the way you look at social media (especially the 'story' function of Snap, Insta and FB), how you perceive privacy, and what you're willing to put on the internet.
13 people found this helpful
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Serious Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2015
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One of the best contemporary novelists.
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Bartolo
3.0 out of 5 stars Wanted It to Be Better
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2010
Verified Purchase
Few of the reviews here refer to Shteyngart's other novels, and perhaps that's telling. The resemblances between "Absurdistan" and this satire--the unattractive protragonist and his love interest in the foreground, dystopic corporate empire in the background--are too obvious to miss, and therein perhaps the shortcomings here. When a novel is less than wonderful, even an amateur wants to play doctor, and perhaps the problem I can identify is that Shteyngart's favored scenario became a little too formulaic on the second go-round. Or perhaps I was charmed the first time, a little less disarmed the second, or had unconsciously raised my expectations. Or perhaps it's the times? 2010 seems decades beyond 2006; we are in the midst of a world-wide recession and beset with a bought-and-paid-for government that obsesses on serving the rich. It's hard to laugh, or to be induced to laugh, at anything that isn't totally off the wall.

The dystopia of "Super Sad" is hardly much of a leap from where we are now. I scoured reviews of the book, looking for someone who could nail the problem for me, and came upon this paragraph from Ron Charles of the Washington Post:

"Perhaps the saddest aspect of this "Super Sad True Love Story" is that you can smell Shteyngart sweating to stay one step ahead of the decaying world he's trying to satirize. It's an almost impossible race now that the exhibitionism of ordinary people has lost its ability to shock us. Just try coming up with something creepier than middle school girls wearing shorts with the word "Juicy" across their bottoms, or imagine a fashion line cruder than FCUK (Shteyngart comes close). His description of friends getting together after work to text other friends is taking place today in every D.C. restaurant. And how can you parody the TV news coverage when George Stephanopoulos has already presented a straight-faced report on Lindsay Lohan's obscene fingernail stencil?"

Another personal diagnosis is that the novel suffers from overambition. Shteyngart's satiric world clatters and clanks with inventions that constantly make us exporers of a world we should inhabit along with his characters, but he never quite succeeds in creating an environment for them--we remain tourists while he necessarily feels obliged to describe the sights. To get us to inhabit the landscape, to make it real to us, perhaps the novel should have been twice as long; but if that is what was necessary, so be it. A mere sketch of an alien landscape, even one not much more than an exaggeration of our own, is frustrating: I wanted to feel the ambience, be haunted. But it wasn't real, even granting the fact that I live in New York and am familiar with the book's described geography.

Moreover, the mix of humor and disaster didn't work for me. Lenny's friends are murdered, the disenfranchised get machine-gunned or clubbed on the head, and yet we are supposed to laugh in the next scene. A tall order, one I don't think Shteyngart pulls off. With a consistency of satiric tone--if the deaths themselves had been outlandish?-- it might have worked, but I didn't find that consistency.

It could be that Steyngart's clown face is forced and stems from undermediated psychic needs. Lenny's "diary" entries in the novel have a literary power that the rest of the novel lacks, perhaps because Lenny, the source of the humor, is himself quite serious. Maybe this is a Shteyngart voice that will find a satisfying outlet later.

On balance this was an interesting book, and worth the time; but I finished it thinking it might have been (choose one) more powerful, more devastating an indictment, or more moving, or certainly funnier. But as a tossed salad, at least this time, the flavors competed rather than complemented.
43 people found this helpful
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