No, it is not a story of a young Russian aristocrate attending its first ball,
but of a Russian Jewish immigrant in New York. At the age of 25 Vladimir
Girshkin - this is the name of the hero - works for a small Immirgant Absorbtion
Society to the dismay of his parents who expect their only son to accomplish the
American dream. The first novel of a Leningrad-born (in 1972) American writer
Gary Shteyngart was a considerable success : besides several literary awards it
earned, it egually received an almost unanimous critics' acclaim.
His days are quite boring, and so are his romantic relationships, until one
days...
The adventures of Vladimir in the Republic Stolovaya (The Canteen Republic)
will take you back to the early 1990s when the drastic changes in Russia were
just beginning...
