Looking at other reviews of this book it seems as though Our Country Friends is perhaps not the best place to start with Gary Shteyngart's novels. As this was the first of his books I have read, I was not sure what to expect and I confess that I didn't like it all that much.
The story begins in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic and we follow a group of friends who gather at a country house to stay during lockdown. The house belongs to Sasha, a writer, and his wife Masha, a psychiatric doctor.
The book promises a lot of humour and drama as this group of unlikely characters are thrown together in a confined space.
Unfortunately the humour was lost on me and the depiction of Masha as one of the only characters concerned with the spread of the virus and following safety guidelines felt mocking and inappropriate. Maybe the memory of the fear and anxiety is all too recent to see the humour but it didn't sit right with me.
I also had high hopes for the potential drama and tension offered by the set-up but over a quarter of the way through the book we were still being introduced to characters and nothing of any interest had happened in the story. Intrigue in the characters and story just weren't there for me.
It is clear that Shteyngart is a good writer and perhaps I would enjoy their previous books more but this one missed the mark for me.
Thank you to Readers First for the copy of this book.
The story begins in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic and we follow a group of friends who gather at a country house to stay during lockdown. The house belongs to Sasha, a writer, and his wife Masha, a psychiatric doctor.
The book promises a lot of humour and drama as this group of unlikely characters are thrown together in a confined space.
Unfortunately the humour was lost on me and the depiction of Masha as one of the only characters concerned with the spread of the virus and following safety guidelines felt mocking and inappropriate. Maybe the memory of the fear and anxiety is all too recent to see the humour but it didn't sit right with me.
I also had high hopes for the potential drama and tension offered by the set-up but over a quarter of the way through the book we were still being introduced to characters and nothing of any interest had happened in the story. Intrigue in the characters and story just weren't there for me.
It is clear that Shteyngart is a good writer and perhaps I would enjoy their previous books more but this one missed the mark for me.
Thank you to Readers First for the copy of this book.