Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

[radishcake]

An interesting read following on the heels of Shovel Ready. It's also about a near future (seriously fucked up) NYC. This one is more absurdist and has a lot of funny moments. There is a whole technology vs knowledge debate in the story as well as the inevitable corporate/government mergers and how they will screw us all over. I actually found a lot of it really sad but I suspect it's because Gary lets some real emotion through the slick absurd gloss he's skating on as he describes this America 2.0.

[TravisNelson76]

This book!  It's a prime example of a book I really, really like for plot/tone/writing/other reasons but cannot get past how much I hate the protagonist (or whatever we're calling Lenny).  I just CANNOT STAND the dude and it ended up coloring my overall opinion.

[radishcake]

Oh I hear you!! I had the exact same problem with Lev Grossman's the Magicians. I HATED the main character so much I had trouble ever rooting for him.

[TravisNelson76]

Indeed, radishcake, indeed.  I was able to get past this somehow with The Magicians.  But that lead was also a capital-P PROBLEM.

[radishcake]

I think the form was what got me through this one. I didn't feel sympathy with any of the characters but I was really into the way it was written. Multiple viewpoints, diary entries, random emails, it was very interesting to me. I think I read it much like someone would in the future, like a weird artifact from a broken time. Oddly the death really made me sad (the people in the park, the boat explosion) I thought it was interesting that THAT was the only thing that made me think of anyone as a person.