Review of Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart

I would normally drool over a book about a rabid watch-collection, because I have been a rabid watch enthusiast (at least in theory) but found my eyes rolling of their own volition while enduring this second novel I’ve read by the author.

While it’s fun to say to yourself, I can visualize the watch he just mentioned, or only a watch nerd would appreciate that horological trivia, the novel’s other tenets and propagandistic tendencies often clash with the more light-hearted asides. Our main character may be difficult to tolerate for some, as he describes his feeble attempts to connect with ordinary people. He is a hedge fund quadrillionaire, who nonetheless goes broke through sheer ineptitude and brash pride. His puerile Greyhound bus adventure is simply an excuse for him to escape his messy home life and poke fun at the quirky passengers. Any bus rider with more than zero eyes is going to have plenty of ammunition if their goal is to feel superior to someone on the bus.

It is all overly dramatic. Characters wallowing in self-created chaos, spouting off unsustainable opinions and constantly harping on unrealistic expectations. But the book is about the ruination of ideals, about fortunes squandered on shiny baubles instead of enriched by good company and family vibes.
Less engaging than the romance in Super Sad True Love Story, the characters here might grate on many readers as they fumble the ball in the inglorious rugby game of their enviable circumstances. The writing is always sapphire clear and glints like a Vacheron-constantin Traditionnelle tourbillon.
Overflowing with pointed social commentary, it is a bit mired in the Hillary Clinton-era. I wonder if anyone will relate to this mindset in forty years. While timely, the specific references will become less hip given time.
Rather than maturing like a good JLC Reverso, I have a feeling that Shteyngart’s florid humor will ring hollow in decades to come.
At the very least the solid description and cringe-inducing dialogue will entertain, even as the ridiculous behavior of unlikeable characters cuts memorable swathes in your brain’s gray matter.