caitlin21521 's review for:

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

2.0

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I actually quite liked this, it was the ending that brought it round for me. The story starts out in a imagined American wasteland, with people absorbed in an even more addictive version of Facebook, sharing everything about themselves down to nutritional intake and credit information. Major corporations have absorbed each other, creating huge conglomerates that operate everything. However, a major disappointment for me was in the way Shteyngart relays the political turmoil - I never felt like it was fully fleshed out and it did get a little confusing in places.

I also was apprehensive of the love story to begin with - it starts with a relationship formulating between an older man, kind of a loser of a guy, and a young early twenty something who is clearly a product of her generation (and yet...not). I did grow to like it - I was afraid it was going to be a typical may-december relationship complete with the manic pixie dream girl who changes his life for the better but it didn't turn out that way. It spoke to the true problems in relationships; there are no illusions except what we let ourselves believe and assume about the other person. I just really liked that aspect.

This book killed a majority of an 8 hr train ride so I'd say it's good enough.