Little Failure: A Memoir

I was truly a little sad when I finished this book. I listened to an audio version narrated by the wonderfully colorful voice of Jonathan Todd Ross, and by half-way through I felt like like said narrator and I were on the verge of best-friendship, so entertaining were his stories. Gary Shteyngart (born Igor Shteyngart in Leningrad at the end of the Soviet Union) gives a deeply poignant account of his life so far (he wrote the book at 37 years old). Told with self-deprecating humor, cutting wit, and Chekovian tenderness, Shteyngart takes the reader on a journey through Soviet Russia, through violent (and hilarious) family dinners in Queens, through the trials and failures of friendship and love, and all the self-hatred and self-revelation both shape and define these experiences. He flips back and forth through the chapters of his life, his deepest desires - for acceptance, for love, for words - laid out on every page, and described in (sometimes painful) detail, often through the lens of self-mockery, but never without empathetic introspection. If you need any more convincing that this is an amazing book and an incredibly talented author, watch the hilarious trailer (yes, there's a TRAILER for this book!): https://youtube.com/watch?v=sowt9Wq7zYU