Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart

Once in awhile a cleverly written book with an unusual protagonist comes to my attention. On the recommendation of a friend, I gave this delightfully peculiar tome a chance. Gary Shteyngart did not disappoint.

Misha Vainberg is a spoiled overweight Russian heir to a fortune his father accumulated in post-Soviet Russia. Misha wants to believe that the world is generally good as are the people he encounters. Unfortunately, in his encounters he learns that the world and its people are far from scrupulous and there was and is more to his father than he'd realized.

After a brief stint in the United States attending college at the fictituous midwestern "Accidental College" (a not so subtle jab at many private midwestern liberal arts colleges such as Albion, Adrian, Alma, and Antioch) and living briefly in Manhattan Misha reluctantly returns to Russia.

Due to his father's shady dealings, an Oklahoman with the ironic name of Roger Daltrey, ends up dead. And thus poor Misha Vainberg is denied re-entry into the United States and a reunion with his girlfriend, Rouenna Sales, from the Bronx.

The book is written as an appeal to INS, or perhaps a love letter to America where Misha so desperately desires to return to. In Misha's struggle to secure a false Belgian passport in the fictitious former Soviet Republic Absurdistan he encounters a bevy of fun and unusual characters. The book is an exceptional satire of the American dream as soon through the foreign eyes of burgeoning democracies, the defense industry, and even takes a few not so subtle jabs at Haliburton.

The one flaw of this otherwise enjoyable tale is the intellectual condescension that seeps through in Shteyngart's writing. Misha's attraction to Rouenna is largely due to their multicultural pairing. He seems to have a hero complex, like he's rescuing a poor girl from the Bronx. Maybe he is doing just that, but there's still that hint of condescension that he's better or knows better what's best for her. The poor are portrayed as an object of pity, whether or not they're deserving of that pity is beside the point. Granted, this is a minor flaw, that only detracts slightly from Shteyngart's enjoyable writing style.

Related Links
Absurdistan on Amazon.com
An Interview with Gary Shteyngart (Del Sol Literary Dialogues)
Absurdistan NY Times review

Kevin Gilbert - Thud (1995)

Sometimes genius comes and goes without much notice or fanfare. Such is the case with the late Kevin Gilbert.

Gilbert was an exceptional songwriter, singer, and producer. While his talents were recognized by many of his musical peers and his small cadre of fervently loyal fans, his music and talents remained and continue to remain largely ignored by the general population.

Thud showcases Gilbert's satirical bite, his talents as a producer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist. But what was Gilbert's strongest suit was his lyrical skills, his masterful way with words and the way his pained vocals delivered his clever lyrics.

Much like the Toy Matinee album he'd done a few years before with Patrick Leonard, there's not a weak track on the album, all songs showing evidence of his troubled musical genius.

Waiting excellently dispels the myth of the promise of better days to come. In Gilbert's vocal delivery you hear his skepticism that the better times he's waiting for will ever actually arrive. If anything you hear a certainty of future disappointments that the longer he waits for things the less apt they are to happen.

Tea For One captures the pain of loneliness and unrequited love with a stark emotional poignance that allows the listener to feel the pain of Duncan, the song's protagonist, and make an emotional connection with the music that is lacking in more conventional pop songs. Similarly, Tears of Audrey, is a song of putting up walls to keep love out. It gives the fear of pain of broken heart a name-- throughout the song the listener wants the tears of Audrey to fall, to break down the emotional walls many of us are guilty of putting up.

All of us have a dark side, a Shadow Self, we keep at bay-- a darker evil version of ourselves that feeds off of our negativity and grows in strength the more we give into that negativity. Shadow Self is a message from that dark side we all have, acting as a warning to help prevent us from letting our Shadow Self take us over.

But of all the tracks on Thud the one that is almost spooky in its clairvoyance-- it's lyrics even more true today than they were at the time of the albums release is Goodness Gracious:

Goodness Gracious
I'm not listening anymore
Cause the spooks are in the White House
and they've justified a war
So wake me when they notify we're gonna fight some more

Who knows what music Gilbert would have created were he still alive today? What stories would he gone on to tell? What messages would he be delivering us through his darkly emotional lyrics? Unfortunately the world will never find out. But at least he left us with a few glimpses into his musical genius. Thud is an overlooked album that is worthy of not just a first glance, but also of several subsequent glances.

If you've missed out on Gilbert's work in the past, it's not going anywhere and it's never too late to sit up and take notice.

The Weather Man (2005)

This movie was overlooked in the theaters-- I believe I blinked the day it was in the theaters and it was gone before I had the chance to see it.

The film was full of the somber melancholy humor which made movies like American Beauty and About Schmidt worth watching.

David Spritz (Nicolas Cage) is not a likeable character, but because he's not likeable he's delightfully real. He's not cardboard caricature of a human, he is human and as such he resonates with an audience that may not like him, but still finds it within their hearts to sympathize with him.

Spritz a local weatherman for Chicago has a career on the rise. He's been shortlisted to become the Weather Man for a national morning show, Hello America with Bryant Gumbel. But even as his professional life is going well, his personal life is disintegrating around him. He and his wife are estranged and have seperated. His two children-- son Michael (Nicholas Hoult last seen playing Marcus in About a Boy, Hoult nails the American accent to great effect) and daughter Shelly (Gemmenne de la Peña previously seen in Erin Brockovich) won't talk to him, he can't stand the man, Russ (Michael Rispoli) whom his ex-wife, Noreen, has started dating, and his own father (played with brilliance as always, by Michael Caine) doesn't take him seriously.

The humor comes in the comedy of errors that Spritz life has turned into-- getting repeatedly pelted with various forms of fast food (Burritos, Big Gulps, Chicken McNuggets, Frosties, etc. etc.), and random strangers asking him what day the "nipper" was going to be (referring to the abhorrent catch phrase "The Spritz Nipper" which his station came up with).

Some of the more poignant moments in the film include Spritz realization that while his daughter has been nicknamed, "Camel Toe" she's oblivious to the true definition and takes it as a compliment rather than as a slur (camel toes are tough, they do all that walking in the desert), and when Spritz decides to settle a score with the pedophiliac counselor who made advances on his 15 year old son.

In the end, sometimes life is shit and you need to make the best of the lemons it gives you, and in the end Spritz comes to learn and understand that message. His life may not have turned out as he planned, but he was still able to make the best of how it turned out.