Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

I honestly don't made me want to read this novel. The title alone would normally turn me away, but again very intriguing. This novel is the work of Gary Shteyngart, who has done various novels but they all typically satirical, but I would also classify this as a near-dystopian future as well. To give a little back ground, basically the USA has gone to shit, we owe way too much money and all of the companies have merged and basically all the girls are sluts, by today's standards (I don't like using the word slut but I can't think of a better word to describe the situation). The girls basically have all of their sexual escapades posted online and are more or less proud of them. Lenny, our main character, has been in Europe for a while and is now forced to come back to the States to work at for his friends company aimed at creating eternal life, something Lenny desperately wants, he is afraid of death, but then he meets Eunice, who turns everything in Lenny's life on its head. He no longer strives for eternal life or thinks about it as often. I won't go any further to avoid spoiling anything, but in the end it isn't necessarily happy or sad.

I can't stress how important I think Gary Shteyngart's novel is. It deals with people who are constantly glued to their electronic devices and many don't know how to get away from it. On top of that, everyone is constantly being rated on their looks (or fuckability in the novel) and personality and it is something you can't escape. Everywhere people walk their credit scores are shown and then typically encouraged to spend their money. Our main character is thought of an outsider since he owns a few "doorstops" or in our terms books, and Eunice states that she doesn't know how to read, but only scan to look for information see will need (this is something I think is incredibly true in our current world). Then on top of it all we almost have a "Big Brother" type government which invades peoples lives to encourage them to spend and stamps out dissidents with violence.

I think this book is a must read for everyone of my generation, I'm 23, and a interesting read for everyone else. It takes a look at our world and moves about 15 years into the future. The only people who shouldn't read this are people who have problems with some explicit sex scenes in novels. They are very detailed and while not degrading, they do clearly explain the interactions our characters are having.