Gary Shteyngart: TOP TEN BOOKS

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Photo by Mark Coggins via Wikimedia Commons

A self-described “child of two failing superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States” the  novelist Gary Shteyngart (who emigrated from the Soviet Union to New York as a 7-year-old) believes that books should be able to teach us things, “but they should also be fun.” As he told The Guardian, “The collapse of humanity is as deathly funny as it is heart-rending.” The author of the novels Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan, and Super Sad True Love Story, and his celebrated 2021 novel, Our Country Friends, as well as the memoir, Little Failure, Shteyngart brings a Russian flair for satire to his writing, but never forgets the imperative of narrative. Things happen in his books, and they happen, too, in the books he likes best, from George Eliot’s “Middlemarch” to George Orwell’s “1984.”

Below are Gary Shteyngart’s favorite books, available to purchase as a set or individually.

$165.64 BUY ENTIRE BOOK COLLECTION
1

Pnin

Vladimir Nabokov
Best damn academic novel ever. Imagine Lolita without the child abuse.
$15.95
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2

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood
The dystopia that's just around the corner.
$15.95
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3

Middlemarch

George Eliot
If you like British stuff and are confused by life, this is the book for you.
$17.00
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4

Portnoy's Complaint

Philip Roth
So many Jews, so little time.
$15.95
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5

1984

George Orwell
Fascinating look at the first year of the Donald Trump administration.
$19.84
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6

Fathers and Sons

Ivan Turgenev
It's really short!
$14.00
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7

Selected Short Stories of Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov
Chekhov is the man!
$18.00
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8

Native Speaker

Chang-rae Lee
Best immigrant novel of the late 20th century.
$16.00
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9

The Interpreter of Maladies

Jhumpa Lahiri
Lots of heartbreak distilled into some awesome sentences.
$14.95
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10

Remembrance of Things Past

Marcel Proust
It's like Knausgård but with edible food.
$18.00
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