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    Thalia Book Club: Gary Shteyngart Little Failure: A Memoir
    Thalia Book Club: Gary Shteyngart Little Failure: A Memoir
    Thalia Book Club: Gary Shteyngart Little Failure: A Memoir
    Audiobook1 hour

    Thalia Book Club: Gary Shteyngart Little Failure: A Memoir

    Written by Gary Shteyngart

    Narrated by Jay McInerney

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In conversation with Jay McInerney (Bright Lights, Big City). The author of Super Sad True Love Story presents his new memoir, a seriously hilarious exploration of his life so far.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSymphony Space Audio
    Release dateJul 1, 2014
    ISBN9781467682275
    Thalia Book Club: Gary Shteyngart Little Failure: A Memoir

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    Reviews for Thalia Book Club

    3.5/5

    217 ratings46 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I quite loved this book. Shteyngart lived in Leningrad until he was seven. He suffered from severe asthma and was beaten by his father and called Failyurka (little failure) by his mother. He also poignantly describes waiting in line for three hours at the Gastronom for one desiccated eggplant. Ah, life in the former Soviet Union.Then they move to Queens and he goes to Hebrew School with no English or Hebrew. It takes him a few years to pick up English and he is decidedly unpopular, but he comforts himself that there are a few boys less popular even than he.He has already started writing. Even in Leningrad he wrote a story for his Grandmother. He has conceived of a secret desire to be a writer, even though he knows he is supposed to be a lawyer. His parents have a very strict life planned for him.He goes to Stuyvesant, a prestigious high school in Manhattan and Oberlin for College. He has a hard time fitting in and thinks it is because he is an immigrant, but it sounded to me pretty much the way almost everybody feels in high school and college. He starts drinking pretty heavily and doing some drugs.He describes he first love affair tenderly and his second as somewhat bizarre. His finds a mentor and a patron, a benefactor, he calls him, who patiently goes over the manuscript of his first novel with him many times, and takes his abuse. Shteyngart is terribly human, full of a need to be loved and appreciated; wretched, from the scars of his childhood.He intersperses stories about his parents throughout the book. He seems to be leading to a big reveal of some horror at the end, but either the horror was imaginary or I missed it. Perhaps it was that his father bloodied his nose. There are pictures and he was such an adorable child, but turned into an average, kind of funny-looking adult. I think he's just now beginning to grow into his face again.As a person of Russian Jewish descent who was also an unpopular nerd in school with a desire to write, I found the whole thing very affecting. A must read for immigrants. And a great success story. Congratulations, Gary Gnu!
    • 4/5
      It took me way too long to finally get around to finishing this one, but I'm glad I did. In Little Failure, the reader gets to enjoy the same sort of sarcastic, dry wit that is fully in force in Super Sad True Love Story. Shteyngart tells his own story this time: childhood, family, relationships, career, neuroses... And it's a good story. As a russophile myself, I found it fascinating - both familiar and completely foreign. My interest flagged a little in just a few parts, but on the whole, the book was engaging. It is full of good moments, both hilarious and heart-wrenching, and he is able to bookend everything with a particularly meaningful personal memory tied to the Chesme Church in Leningrad.Recommended for fans of Shteyngart's other work.
    • 4/5
      You don't have to be a Russian, Jewish, immigrant, New Yorker to appreciate Gary Shteyngart's autobiography, Little Failure, but it can't hurt. Having some things in common with the author (religion, adopted city, Stuyvesant High School, working in the Financial District and browsing The Strand - now a Lot Less discount store) made me appreciate his personal story without ever having read his novels. Sharing traits (hopefully failure not being one of them) facilitates empathy and understanding, but Shteyngart's story is in some ways a universal one of becoming an adult and coming to understand oneself. His journey is more painful than most, and his skill, like David Sadaris's, is weaving that pain into golden, laugh out loud, humor.
    • 4/5
      Unfortunately my familiarity with Gary Shteyngart's writing is limited. I've read a few pages of Super Sad Love Story (I didn't stop reading because it was bad) and an interview with him in Modern Drunkard (yes, this is a real magazine and I recommend picking up one if you can find a copy). The fact that I remember the interview ten years later speaks to its hilarity. And this memoir, Little Failure, is funny too. But the humor is weighed down by the banality of the events he describes. Okay, you smoked (pot) and drank too much in high school and college, you're awkward around girls, and you had a toxic relationship, welcome to the club Gary. The first 100 pages deal with his childhood in St. Petersburg (till age seven). There is a lot of seemingly unnecessary flash backs and forwards in this 1st third of the book. Gary has to spend most of his childhood reading and writing on the family couch so as not to aggravate his asthma by running around. I was glad when his family moved to the West and Gary could get inhalers, because at the risk of sounding insensitive the frequent parts about his asthma came off as whiny. An intriguing aspect of his memoir is his relationship with an older writer named John. Gary latches onto John who becomes his mentor and benefactor. At times Gary is admittedly parasitic and ungrateful. John eventually ends up convincing Gary to seek therapy, which according to the author helped a great deal. I was curious if Gary paid back the loans to John and if they're still friends.There is a traumatic childhood event that the author frequently alludes to and is revealed in the last few pages. I felt like the event was built up way too much and when it's revealed, it's anti-climatic. As a general comment I hope this memoir craze is reaching its peak. Not everyone should write a memoir. Adopting a dog or smoking pot in college are not compelling reasons to write memoirs. I felt like this book was written to help the author exorcise some personal demons (and the author should be commended for his bracing honest about his personal failings) and maybe pressure from the publisher to write another book.Reading this book has encouraged me to pick up Shteyngart's fiction and New Yorker pieces. I'd recommend this book to people who already like the author or love memoirs.
    • 5/5
      Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart is a very highly recommended memoir.

      Many people only know Gary Shteyngart as a successful writer but in this humorous memoir, Little Failure, he proves he is gifted at whatever form his writing takes. Little Failure follows Shteyngart from his childhood to the present. Born Igor Shteyngar in Leningrad, at age 7 Gary immigrated to the USA with his parents in 1979. He was an asthmatic child and the struggle to handle this looms large in his early life. It was clear to him even before his mother gave him the American/Russian nickname "failurchka" or "little failure" that he was never going to live up to his parent expectations.

      What he experienced would be a steep learning curve for any non-English speaking child. He had to try to learn English and Hebrew all in a new, foreign country while simultaneously listening to his parents seemingly fight constantly. Traumatic would be an understatement. Following, always with self-deprecating humor, his struggles in school, with classmates, with women, and on and on, Little Failure offers stories and insight into how Shteyngart views his family and the world around him. He always feels he is "A Little Failure of the first order" as he struggles with the dichotomy that is his life.

      What Little Failure does best, beyond being an outstanding memoir, is show that Shteyngart is an exceptional storyteller whether the stories are fiction or nonfiction. Even if you have or haven't read Shteyngart, and/or love or dislike his writing, those who like to read memoirs are going to enjoy this one. It is certainly entertaining, but also emotional, honest, and poignant.
      It only helps establish the bond between writer and reader that the chapters open with cleverly labeled pictures from Shteyngart's life that add a personal touch.

      I'm going to have to admit that I started Super Sad True Love Story and set it aside without finishing it. After reading Little Failure I think it's time to give it another try. He noted that after he completed this memoir, he reread his three novels and was "shocked by the overlaps between fiction and reality." His memoir could give me a new insight and appreciation for his fiction.

      Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Random House via Netgalley for review purposes.
    • 4/5
      Heard so much about this author and this book. He is a funny and truthful person. I enjoyed maybe half of the book. Parts here and there. The funny was very funny.
    • 4/5
      One can count on getting some laughs from Gary Shteyngart, and in the beginning you get enough of those as he traces his upbringing in Soviet Jewish family; but stick around, and you find yourself really feeling for the "Little Failure." Many memoirs are written, I think, from the author's attempt to exorcise demons, and that's certainly true for this book. But it turns out in the end that as Shteyngart finally looks the demons that have tormented him through much of his life, they really don't look that bad. Or more accurately, they assumed a disproportionate influence over his life than they deserved, scary shadows whose source of projection was merely mortal.

      Very entertaining.
    • 5/5
      This book deserves a stellar review to equal the stellar, innovative, creative, wonderful writing and mindset of this author. My mind just doesn't curl around things the same way that Gary Shteyngart's does; no one's does. He is one unique person. I'll embellish this review later.
      _____________

      Raise your hand if you had perfect parents. Now, waggle your index finger high where we can see it if you are a perfect parent. Gary's parents weren't perfect and like all parents the world over, they were products of the society and culture in which they grew up. Most readers who take the time to savor this book fully will find snippets of their own lives here, despite the author's immigrant upbringing in two different countries. Brutal honesty defines Gary's witty, tantalizingly clear-eyed rendering of the first few decades of his life.

      When Gary writes, it doesn't matter what he's writing about. His writing and twist of phrase, the way his mind links dissimilar words and ideas together, is mesmerizing. What if, I wondered, his brain wasn't sopping wet with alcohol or choking on cannabis chemicals? Would his impressions of that part of his life be different? Would his creative expression be different, sharper?

      It's hard to imagine writing sharper than this, memories clearer than these, anguish, love, longing better relayed, and yet, Gary is matter-of-fact. He shows the resiliency of children. Sometimes my heart was still aching for him while he moved right along, particularly where a certain degree of parental abuse was involved. And yet, they loved him in the only ways they knew how.

      For all Gary endured in his life, he was a brilliant, imaginative kid, a tough kid, though he never thought so and was told everything opposite. The human spirit is an elusive and marvelous thing. The wonder of the rare times Gary knew triumph are luminous. Writing was his escape from an early age and now he is a resounding success in the writing world.

      After reading this book, wouldn't you love to meet him? Just have a tete-a-tete over a cup of coffee?

      Oh, the story? You can read about that most everywhere else. It's a memoir, not a whodunit, shootemup action. I disagree with reviewers who think one has to be a certain age to write a memoir. A twelve-year-old can write a memoir, to date. Isn't that what diaries are, loosly? No, you may have to be old to write a biography but memoirs are sections of a life -- a week, a year, 5 years or 40. The photos included in this book enriched the reading experience.

    • 4/5
      74. Little Failure: A Memoir (Audio) by Gary Shteyngart, read by Jonathan Todd Ross (2014, 12 hrs 46 mins, 368 pages in Paperback, Listened December 4-15)I hadn't been interested in Shteyngart, but this book popped up on NPR's best books of 2014 page and, when another audio book I was reading was unexpectedly and automatically returned to the library, I needed* an audio book and this was available at the library. I liked it enough that when the first book came available again, I chose to keep listening to this.The first half or maybe even 2/3's of this memoir is about Shteyngart's immigration to and assimilation with the US. His family left Russia with many other Jews in the late 1970's when Shteyngart was five. They spent about a year in different places in Europe and then immigrated the US, or the enemy as Shteyngart understood it, when he was seven. It's a rich and fascination experience of the world in Russia and then the confusion in the US. As a Jew in Russia, a large portion of Shteyngart's aunts and uncles, great aunts and uncles and at least two of his great grandfathers died young, many during WWII where his mother's family, in Belorussia, was caught between Russian and German abuse. In the US his parents linked up with a very conservative Jewish community and Shteyngart found himself circumcised at age 7! And, in his cultural confusion and effort to hide his Russian identity, he told his friends at his all Jewish school that was East German. The book keeps going and Shteyngart becomes a really messed up high schooler and young adult, with severe drug and alcohol problems and self destructive neurosis. I didn't know any of this, and it's almost like a completely different book. I simply didn't see these problems coming. At one point a friend who has been his benefactor gives him a loan based on the promise that Shteyngart will get psychiatric help, and the therapy seems to have been key in Shteyngart stabilizing his life and becoming a successful author. There seems to be a lot of insight into Shteyngart's novels, but I haven't read any of them. What I found interesting was that he lived through the same era I did, and yet our experiences were so radically different. Even his cultural references were often so different from my own. Overall I found the book very good, and certainly it's great for Shteyngart fans. I'm not sure whether or not I want to read his novels.Note on the audio: Jonathan Todd Ross has a fantastic voice. But, his voice is so wholesome American, I didn't feel it was the right voice for this book.*"needed" is maybe too strong a word for really wanted
    • 3/5
      This was a tough read for me! The first half of the book just kind of dragged itself along. The narrator's parents are SO AWFUL to him, once we finally moved out of the narrator's childhood into his adolescence things picked up.

      The one thing that I really liked about this book was the disarming honesty in which the narrator freely portrays himself. Yes, he is a little shit growing up and continues to be well into his adulthood - there are no apologies, or more accurately the only 'apology' is the fact that the narrator came full circle and realizes he was a total shit.

      This memoir is highly recommended to anyone interested in the immigrant experience, but I wouldn't pick it up solely because you are a fan of Gary Shteyngart. (Which is why I picked it up.)
    • 3/5
      I read this because of the rave reviews. Those raves are not warranted. The book is interesting and reasonably well written, but it is not wonderful. It is more like a purge of bad memories. The ending is too drawn out ... as if the author was required to have x number of pages and had to fill in the blanks. Too bad. I had high hopes for this.
    • 4/5
      This book is all about perspective and being haunted by things that gain a different perspective with age. Lots of comedic nuggets and profound revelations. Crafted writing.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of a Russian Jew who immigrated to this country at age 8 and is one of the more truthful insightful memoirs I've read. He views himself and his parents with a fair even handedness in an effort to understand and yet does not draw away emotionally. It is not always comfortable but is compelling.
    • 2/5
      Ostensibly, "Little Failure" is about Shteyngart's complicated relationship with his parents, and how they crippled him emotionally, but basically it is just about why Gary Shteyngart is an asshole. David Sedaris, Augusten Burroughs: they too were subjected to unorthodox parenting, and lived to write good books about it. Shteyngart: not so much. I ended up with sympathy for his Soviet mother and father, who tried to make a new living in the USA, only to see their son squander his opportunities on drugs and alcohol, and hide his insecurities behind douchey behaviour. I liked Shteyngarts ficion so far (Debutante and especially Absurdistan); there were just some aspects that made me queasy - I now know it's the passages where his own personality comes through.
    • 3/5
      I had a hard time with this book. I disliked Sheyngart intensely despite how difficult his childhood and his parents were. I agreed with his friend John's harsh criticisms. I hated his ironic, self-pitying tone as he regarded himself. I'm happy John finally lent him money for psychoanalysis, but the results, the ability to look upon one's life more dispassionately, were not evident. And the writing was pedestrian.Just to give a sense of my exasperation: The whole business of the panic attacks and the Chesme church and the helicopter, foreshadowed throughout the book, I never quite got. Yes his father hit him there, but he hit him many other times. (I feel bad quibbling about this, but it just gives a sense of my frustration with this book.)And who wants to read excerpts from books people wrote as children? Tedium.
    • 2/5
      I expected this to be a funny memoir but the writing just came off depressing to me. Didn't finish it, which is really rare for me.
    • 4/5
      I hadn't read any of Shteyngart's novels, but have seen his howlingly funny book trailers online. This is such a rich, funny book, and anyone who enjoys reading about the immigrant experience should put this on their TBR list. His vivid writing brings his childhood in Russia to life and his stories of his parents fighting (he always feared they would divorce), his grandmother's fierce devotion to him, his striving for acceptance from his new American classmates and how that led him to a life as a writer are fascinating.I think Americans take for granted how many people want to come here to live, the sacrifices they make and how hard they work to fit in and build a good life for their families. Reading Little Failure will remind you of that.Shteyngart's book is brutally honest in quest for acceptance from his classmates, his search for love in college, and his many missteps on the road to writing success. He lays himself out there for all to see. At the end of the book, he takes his parents back to Russia, and this section of the book is very moving.Shteyngart is a brilliant writer, each sentence perfectly constructed to convey his idea. Even if you haven't read his fiction (like me), if you like the memoir genre and you like to laugh, this book is for you.
    • 4/5
      Shteyngart's memoir was a very pleasant surprise, funny,honest, illuminating, and set mostly in Queens, in territory familiar to me because I also grew up in Queens. After reading this one, I have to read all his novels!
    • 3/5
      Try as I might, I simply cannot get into this book. I managed to trudge through the first few chapters and I have finally decided this book is simply not for me. Life is too short and there are too many other books I will enjoy reading to spend any more time on this one. Normally, I like memoirs, but I failed to find the humor in this book.
    • 4/5
      Reading Little Failure is quite the emotional roller coaster. Two chapters in and my heart was pounding as I sank into Gary's world of asthma, confusion, extended family, Russian history, immigration woes, and chaos. I always marvel at how good writers are able to take what seems to the average person like a mundane event and craft it into something worth showing off to the masses, and Gary excels at that. If you're not one for experiencing vicarious pain, then this isn't the book for you, but if you're looking for a great understanding of the various shades that life comes in, then give Little Failure a shot.
    • 3/5
      In [Little Failure: A Memoir], the author describes his emigration from the Soviet Union to the US as a child in 1979 and his life as an immigrant in Queens, NY. The story was interesting and leads to a lot of "What if?". What if his parents had spoken English at home? What if he had attended public school rather than a private Jewish school? What if his parents had not been so frugal that they got furniture from the dump and clothed them in cheap, used "by the pound" clothes? What if he had not followed his girlfriend to college in Ohio?The author is likeable as a child, evoking sympathy for the bullying he received during his struggle to be accepted, but develops a mean steak as he grows older, in turn bullying those weaker than him, and lying almost pathologically. The good news is that although he did not meet his parents expectations he achieved the success as a novelist that he had longed for. ***I received this from the LT Member Giveaway program.
    • 4/5
      You don't have to be Russian, or Jewish, or an immigrant to appreciate Gary Shteyngart's memoir. Born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), he and his parents immigrated to New York City (Queens) when he was 7. The stories he tells of his new life, his loneliness, and the partial acceptance he gained through his humor and taking on an alternate personality will resonate with many readers. But the heart of this book is the evolving relationship with his parents--or rather his evolving perception of the relationship. His father, a would-be opera singer who ended up an Engineer, and his mother, a piano teacher, were very tough on their son, tagging him with a variety of unflattering names, including the "Little Failure" of the book's title. Nor were they too happy to see him want to become a writer instead of a lawyer, especially after he was accepted into New York City's best high school, where he spent most of his time drinking and taking drugs. Nevertheless, they supported him as he headed to college at Oberlin, a perfect place to do even more drinking and drug taking.I am inclined to believe in the essential truth of the story Shteyngart tells because he is the worst person in the book. His parents have their faults, but in the end we come to appreciate their achievement of making a successful life in America. Their son, on the other hand, in addition to the drugs and alcohol, also takes pleasure in treating other people badly, even the ones who are trying to help him. Anyone who tells so many embarrassing stories about his own behavior just has to be believed.All this makes it sound like the book is a real downer--and I haven't even told you about the fate of most of the author's Russian ancestors--but it isn't. By telling the story non-chronologically, Shteyngart apportions the gloom appropriately throughout the narrative so that it never overwhelms the keen observations and sharp, mostly self-deprecating humor that the book is filled with. I'm not sure I'd call it laugh out loud funny (that would be Jack Lemmon getting caught in the periscope in The Great Race), but it is definitely giggle under your breath funny.As perhaps one of the few readers of this memoir who hasn't read Shteyngart's fiction, this book makes me want to do so. I wonder, though, if the autobiographical parts in his novels will have the same effect after reading the true story. I am confident, however, that his work will continue to evolve, since one lesson from the events in this memoir is that Shteyngart seems to be a better person from having lived through them.So by all means dive into this fascinating, quirky, memoir. You won't regret it.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed reading Gary's book about himself and his family's life pre and post immigration from the Ukraine. I found it to read much like his novels, which are loosely based on his life anyway, I think. As evidenced by the title, this is not supposed to be a particularly uplifting memoir, but it is written with candor and his trademark humor. Even the very serious issues are handled with some degree of sensitivity. Being an only child can be challenging. In Gary's case, it is especially so. From childhood on, he is called small son and little failure among other deprecating "endearments". Although there is much love in his family, it is often expressed in confusing and inappropriate ways. This is where he comes from, and its affect on him creates his story. I found it to be witty, yet heart wrenching at times. Twists and turns can not keep his talent from coming forth, and this memoir is really a tribute to that. He pretty much dissects his life and that of his parents, laying open hidden parts and still perpetuating that only child's desire to please. I enjoyed Little Failure immensely and would recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed his other novels or is interested in the immigrant experience. I thank the publisher, Gary, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.
    • 5/5
      The tone of this book reminded me of Jean Shepherd's "A Christmas Story" - you laugh along with the joy, you flinch at the pain. Even if you didn't share the same experience, you shared the feeling in your own coming-of-age story.
    • 3/5
      I admit that I have not read any of Shteynart's books until this one which was generously provided to me by Random House Publishing Group. The book left me with mixed feelings toward it. I enjoy his wonderfully written descriptions of what it was like to grow up in NYC as a immigrant boy, never quite being accepted. (Gary came to the US when he was seven years old.) I also enjoyed reading of how life was in Russia and his return to it as an adult. There are many humorous passages regarding his relationship with his parents and interactions with people his age, some native-born Americans and others immigrants like himself. the book. I wasn't thrilled with some of the language he used. I'm not a prude and don't mind the language when it is appropriate. But there is so much of it used with no point. That was a turn-off to me. But overall, it was an enjoyable read. He really wasn't that different from native-born Americans of that time. He had his turn with alcohol, drugs, and always trying to find a woman. What I really came away with was how hard his family worked to gradually move up in economic-status. An interesting read.
    • 3/5
      I received this from Early Reviewers with a bit of trepidation because I was not a huge fan of Super, Sad, True Love Story also by Shteyngart. I think he is a fantastic writer, but I had a lot of trouble connecting to that story, and I felt similarly while reading this memoir. On the plus side Shteyngart is laugh out loud funny at times, the characters are interesting and fully drawn, and there is certainly a worthwhile story to be told of his family's emigration from the Soviet Union to the US. Even with all of this there was something missing for me...possibly due to his writing style, or my own trepidation toward memoirs by people who are younger than I am.
    • 4/5
      I received this book as part of the Early Reviewers program. It tells the story of his family, their emigration from the Soviet Union to New York, and his attempts to assimilate. While I enjoyed it, the level of self-deprecating humor got to be a bit much after awhile. I like his novels better.
    • 5/5
      A brilliant book about immigration, becoming a writer, and the things that parents pass on to their children. It is extremely well-written, and Shteyngart's use of humor makes some of the more painful episodes bearable (even though they are still difficult to read). I think that I would have even more fully appreciated the book if I had already read his novels as then I could have had a greater understanding of how he used his life in fiction.
    • 4/5
      Gary Shteyngart's memoir, LITTLE FAILURE, is the first of his books I have read, although I have read numerous blurbs and reviews (mostly positive) of his second and third novels, ABSURDISTAN and SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY. The guy's stock-in-trade is obviously humor, a biting satirical sort of humor, and, if this memoir is any indication, one that does not spare those closest to him. And I know he's been pretty successful and his books have sold well, so maybe it's a generational thing, but I had trouble even liking this guy who can so freely poke cruel fun at his parents, particularly given the tremendous sacrifices they have made on behalf of their only child, sickly and asthmatic. The 'humor' is, in some cases, just too caustic and critical. Yes, he does make fun of himself too, but even so ...While it's probably of interest only to me, I did take note of the fact that Shteyngart's family chose to leave the USSR right at the time that the Soviet military invaded Afghanistan, just before Christmas of 1979. If you had a son, it was a damn good time to get outa Dodge. Shteyngart was only thirty-eight when he was writing this (maybe a bit young to be writing your memoirs) and the first half of the book seemed a bit slow and redundant, the humor often cutesy and forced. The second part of the book, puberty and beyond, first in Queens and then at Oberlin College, was much more interesting, although - maybe that generational thing again - I had trouble relating to his drunken stoner ways. The humor here became much darker and perhaps even self-destructive, as the author moaned about his despair of ever finding someone to love him, although he seemed to end up doing okay with women. Indeed, one affair he documents here, with 'Pamela Sanders,' with its intimations of somewhat sleazy, slumming sexual obsession, reminded me of Glen Savan's novel of that ilk, WHITE PALACE.The guy can be funny, no question. But it's not my kind of humor and there seems to be just a little too much self pity and whining involved in telling of a life in which the real sacrifices were made by a pair of parents who made many difficult choices and did everything they could to do right by their son. Yeah, their thrifty immigrant ways, broken English and old-country habits may have seemed strange and embarrassing to him. But did they deserve being so often the butt of his jokes? I don't think so. Shteyngart is a good writer, especially considering English is not his first language. He has obviously long since overcome that barrier; has, in fact, mastered the language thing. Now he just needs to grow up.
    • 5/5
      This memoir covers the acclaimed fiction writers immigration from Russia and upbringing in NYC. He told honest truths of being a young adult and all of the problems, responsibilities and "little failures" that come in trying to make your own place in the world. The writing was just as good as his fiction, if not more fine tuned with detail and description with it being an all out memoir. I usually read a few memoirs a year (3-8) and this one is the best I've read so far for this year. It will without a doubt be put on my bookshelf, never to leave because of it's humor, reality and great writing.