Review: "Lake Success" by Gary Shteyngart

American author Gary Shteyngart is someone who rarely made a blip on my radar, a kind of lesser well-known writer in the vain of a Michael Chabon or Jonathan Lethem and his second novel, Absurdistan, the only book of his I have read has easily slipped from my memory since I read at the tail end of 2010. And now, 8 years later, his fourth novel Lake Success offered in little in the way of expectation for me, but after finishing, it left me surprised, entertained and unexpectedly moved in some scenes. It’s imperfections are glaring and impossible to ignore or talk about, so while as a whole it peters out, fizzles and comes back to life in rapid successions, it’s high points, little scenes that try and mostly succeed to offer a fictionalized account of our country’s current moment, the book has the potential to be mesmerizing. At the center of this novel is Barry Cohen, a self-involved egomaniac who manages nearly a billion dollars worth of hedge funds. With his failing marriage to his much younger wife Seema, the recent autism diagnosis in his son Shiva and the threat of being indicted after a few shady financial dealing, Barry is on the verge of a total meltdown, which boils over after knock down drag out fight with Seema, where Barry, along with his collection of priceless watches, hits the road by bus to reconnect with his college sweetheart. I was afraid early on Shteyngart was going to make Barry easy to hate, but thankfully he doesn’t. His bubble of wealth taints his inner monologues, which come out hopelessly sappy, misguided and foolish, but we never forget that he means well and that his pain is valid, like his flashbacks to his home and school life and one particularly great chapter where Barry reconnects with a fried employee. As I said, the chunks where it doesn’t work tend to be laughable, like the book’s longest chapter that ends in a ridiculous and tawdry manner that reads like a character betrayal and needless rock bottom for an already battered Barry. But the book redeems itself with a beautiful ending, where Barry finally learns something useful. This is a funny, sometimes heartbreaking novel about finding hope in troubled times. 
Rating: 4/5