Starred review from June 27, 2016
When Vica, a Russian immigrant, brings her son to take an entrance exam for an elite Manhattan high school, she observes the other parents: “You could easily divide them into two categories: Susan Sontag types and Outer Borough types.” Such discernments reflect Vapnyar’s (Memoirs of a Muse) hilarious and weighty insights as she explores familiar yet endlessly fascinating territory: the banalities of American life through the lens of Russians who may not think coming to the U.S. was actually the best choice. In this novel, Vica, who was a promising medical student in Moscow but now works as a sonogram technician, is one of four main characters. Her husband, Sergey, who has been “steadily losing his looks for the last year or two,” is fixated on creating an app he hopes will make him rich and redeem his general mediocrity. The app, a potential gold mine, as well as the inherent loneliness of social media, is a powerful theme throughout the book, as Vapnyar writes convincingly about technology’s impact on her characters, offering a brilliant critique of it. As Vica and Sergey’s marriage unravels, the book also explores their friendship with two other Russians: Vadik, a lonesome computer programmer, and Regina, who had been a highly sought-after translator in Russia but whose American life has left her despondent and watching lots of TV. The novel provides a lively view of a group of friends navigating their early 40s, juggling mistakes of their past and trying to remain hopeful about the future. Once again, Vapnyar illustrates her incredible ability to create rich and entertaining narratives. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.
March 1, 2016
Again featuring the cultural displacement she's offered in her strongly reviewed works (e.g., The Scent of Pine), Vapnyar gives us Russian immigrants and close friends Vica, Vadik, Sergey, and Regina. Dreamer Sergey's app idea--called Virtual Grave, it aims to give a voice to the dead via texting and other tools--sets off a debate among the four about dashed hopes, lost memories, and the inevitability of death. Positioned as a breakout.
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 1, 2016
Vapnyar's intriguing third novel (The Scent of Pine; Memoirs of a Muse) follows four school friends from Moscow who all immigrated to New York City. Sergey and Vica are unhappily married, mostly owing to his lack of success as an analyst, and his obsession with developing a strange new app. "Virtual Grave" would allow users to continue to communicate with loved ones who have passed on via their social media personas. We also hear from Sergey's best friend Vadik and ex-girlfriend Regina. Regina married a rich American, Bob, who works with Vadik, a programmer; she spends a lot of time alone in her luxury apartment before a trip back to Russia changes her life. Vadik cycles through girlfriends he meets online and documents his thoughts on Twitter and Tumblr. While the affairs of these four characters are not exactly riveting, the small, well-chosen details and eerily accurate descriptions of their Internet habits carry the narrative. VERDICT An intriguing take on the immigrant experience in New York from those who "made it" and those who didn't. Recommended for fans of Russian literature, novels about our digital lives, or modern literary New York writers such as Emma Straub. [See Prepub Alert, 3/1/16.]--Kate Gray, Boston P.L., MA
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.