Eight people are quarantined together in a bungalow colony outside of NYC in the Hudson Valley during the 2020 pandemic. The “cast” includes the owner of the land area, Alexander “Sasha” Senderovsky, a writer, his wife Masha, a psychiatrist, and their adopted daughter Natasha (Nat). Sasha and Masha are Russian Jewish immigrants, and their daughter is from China. Also invited is Karen Cho, a Korean-American app designer who is a longtime friend of the Senderovskys. Nat is obsessed with K-pop, is eager to learn more about Korean culture, and considers Karen an aunt. Interestingly, Karen hasn’t always identified with her own Korean culture.
Other invitees to the small group trying to avoid contracting COVID-19 include Ed Kim, who has three countries’ citizenships, but not the United States. He had been present when Sasha and Masha met and, therefore, a long-term friend; he did most of the cooking for the group. However, Ed was pessimistic, saying things like Nat belonged to “Generation L, for Last.” Also among the group is Vinod, an unpublished writer, and Dee Cameron, Sasha’s former writing student. Then there is the Actor whose name becomes known toward the novel’s end.
The Actor, who is ½ Irish ¼ Turkish, and probably Gujarat, enters and exits the story like a performer on stage. He does not have the friendship history with the Senderovskys shared by the others. He was invited to help Sasha write a television script. His interactions with the others seem to show us the ugly face of the world, including online communications and continual buffoonery. The Actor is involved in the guests’ refusal to take pandemic protocols seriously as he is instrumental in promoting a variety of sexual encounters.
The author modeled this story on the plays of Chekhov. Much of it is absurd, satirical, and funny. There is never a dull moment, and there are multiple layers to the interactions and exploits of the players in this story. I am sure I missed some of the societal issues Shteyngart addressed through the characters. Still, news items that surfaced during the pandemic were front and center and played out in relationships, events, and conversations: isolation, volatilities of friendships, social media and its woes, racial discrimination, police violence, television ads as representative of American culture, Asian blame for the pandemic, mask wearers vs. others, and so much more.
