I consider Super Sad True Love Story to be right up there with Oryx & Crake as perfect speculative fiction as it also seem to take what we have now, society-wise, and project that into a tale of a perfectly dystopian near-future of capitalism run amok where ThePowersThatBe^TM are at least a bit more honest about Life being far less important than Finance.

This novel is set in the mostly-real world of first wave Covid-19, where people who could were happy to leave their lives in the metropolis and try to hide out in the countryside, alongside the people who, among other things, probably didn’t vote like them in the last election. Although Shteyngart has been focused on the world of the “Haves” in this and his last novel, Lake Success, most of the “Haves” in this tale are a lot less secure in their bank accounts and their debts weigh far heavier on them than on Lake‘s protagonist. They are also mostly immigrants or first generation US citizens, so there’s also that.

Masha and Sasha, the hosts, are not playing from the same script: Sasha envisions a summer camp for adults reminiscent of the vacation colony of Russian Jews he remembers from their youth. Masha is more bound up in trying to protect their adopted daughter, of Asian descent, from Covid and the world’s harshness in general. Nat, the daughter, would like to figure out who she is – as an adopted child being raised by people deeply embedded in a birth culture not much like that of her biological parents, this makes sense. Their friends and other guests are a mixed bag: Karen Cho, who made a fortune off a social app, and Vinod Mehta, who has little in his bank account, are old friends from college; Karen’s cousin, Ed, is well-heeled & sophisticatedly urbane. And then there are the outliers: Dee, Sasha’s former student, and The Actor, a celebrity who Sasha needs to work with in order to get the cash flow necessary for maintaining the country estate they’re on.

I hope you like Chekov (the writer, not the Star Trek character) because an appreciation of the Good Doctor’s work will allow you to soak up so many beautiful more layers of humour and tragedy from the goings-on in this place removed from the city. Not gonna lie, one chapter had me in tears as Shteyngart inserts Uncle Vanya (my fave) directly into the tale for perfect effect.

Luckily, Chekov is not a prerequisite for enjoying this novel: a willingness to let yourself soak in the lives of people who are probably nothing like you via paragraphs that expose the inner and outer workings of these friends & acquaintances who are riding out a storm on an increasingly rickety raft that is hard to stay on while also maintaining some sense of social distancing. Throw in some social media/tech-induced drama and … well, this isn’t a story for those who must have happy endings, ok?