It's March 2020 and a calamity is unfolding. A group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters includes a Russian-born novelist; his Russian-born psychiatrist wife; their precocious child obsessed with K-pop; a struggling Indian American writer; a wildly successful Korean American app developer; a global dandy with three passports; a Southern flamethrower of an essayist; and a movie star, the Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family. Both elegiac and very, very funny, Our Country Friends is the most ambitious book yet by the author of the beloved bestseller Super Sad True Love Story.
I was really looking forward to reading this book as the synopsis and the blurb really peaked my interest. This was my first time reading a book that is set in the pandemic so that in itself interested me.
I have heard very good things about this author, so I was really looking forward to reading his work, but this really disappointed me. I think I would like to try and read another book by Shteyngart in the future which will hopefully be more intriguing for me.
I felt like there was way too much going on and I found it hard to keep focused on the story. I didn't really like any of the characters at all ((I found them very dull, boring, and bland) so I found it hard to make a connection to them and to route for them. I found myself reading very quickly as I just wanted something interesting to happen, but nothing at all sparked my interest.
Overall, I really did not like this book. I must stress that this is my opinion and everyone likes different books, so just because I didn't like it, it doesn't mean that you won't like it.
I was really looking forward to reading this book as the synopsis and the blurb really peaked my interest. This was my first time reading a book that is set in the pandemic so that in itself interested me.
I have heard very good things about this author, so I was really looking forward to reading his work, but this really disappointed me. I think I would like to try and read another book by Shteyngart in the future which will hopefully be more intriguing for me.
I felt like there was way too much going on and I found it hard to keep focused on the story. I didn't really like any of the characters at all ((I found them very dull, boring, and bland) so I found it hard to make a connection to them and to route for them. I found myself reading very quickly as I just wanted something interesting to happen, but nothing at all sparked my interest.
Overall, I really did not like this book. I must stress that this is my opinion and everyone likes different books, so just because I didn't like it, it doesn't mean that you won't like it.