海角大神

Little Failure, Gary Shteyngart鈥檚 alternately hilarious and surprisingly sincere memoir, is written very much from the vantage point of success. Shteyngart has already published three highly acclaimed, scathingly funny satirical novels 鈥� 鈥淭he Russian Debutante鈥檚 Handbook,鈥� 鈥淎bsurdistan,鈥� and 鈥淪uper Sad True Love Story鈥� 鈥� and has been hailed as a successor to no less than Saul Bellow and Philip Roth.

鈥淔ailurchka鈥� 鈥� 鈥淟ittle Failure鈥� 鈥� is a hybrid English-Russian 鈥渆ndearment鈥� Shteyngart鈥檚 tough-love Soviet-born parents coined for their asthmatic, anxious only child after they emigrated from Leningrad to the United States in 1979, when he was 7. Another moniker was 鈥淪oplyak,鈥� which translates as 鈥淪notty鈥� 鈥� hardly catchy-title material.

Shteyngart鈥檚 self-deprecating memoir takes apart and reassembles what he calls the 鈥渘esting doll of memory鈥� to chronicle his path from a sickly 鈥淢arcel Proust-looking boy鈥� obsessed with cosmonauts and Lenin to an aspiring Republican and awkward misfit at a conservative Hebrew day school in Queens, N.Y., where he learned to wield humor and storytelling to gain acceptance.

Although he managed to shed his Russian accent, his loneliness and sense of alienation clung to him through his years at Manhattan鈥檚 prestigious Stuyvesant High School, flannel-clad Oberlin College, and early jobs writing for nonprofits in New York City. He is unsparing in his description of the steady infusion of alcohol and marijuana with which he anesthetized himself. His extended, inebriated blue period is not only less unique than his earlier childhood, but, not surprisingly, also makes for less scintillating reading.

Shteyngart鈥檚 downward spiral was finally arrested in his late 20s when a mentor insisted he start psychoanalysis. Twelve years of intensive therapy gained him the perspective to turn 鈥渢he rage and humor that are our chief inheritance鈥� into literature 鈥� and, with this memoir, correct the 鈥渦nfaithful record鈥� of his life presented in his novels.

Readers eager for Shteyngart鈥檚 trademark caustic humor need look no further than the captions under family photographs, including this howler: 鈥淭o become a cosmonaut, the author must first conquer his fear of heights on a ladder his father has built for that purpose. He must also stop wearing a sailor outfit and tights.鈥�

There are amusing riffs on his mortifying circumcision at 8, and on his name, a Sovietized version of the German Steingarten, or Stone Garden, which was actually Steinhorn before a slip 鈥渋n some Soviet official鈥檚 hand, a drunk notary, a semiliterate commissar, who knows.鈥� His given name was changed to Gary when his family decided Igor evoked Frankenstein鈥檚 assistant.

Shteyngart paints a sharp picture of the Soviet-Jewish immigrant experience, but more personally, a devastatingly tricky portrait of his parents that is at once wince-worthy, guffaw-inducing 鈥� and soberingly sympathetic. There are scenes that channel Woody Allen and Philip Roth, including a birthday dinner at his mother鈥檚 favorite restaurant atop the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. His parents, who had not read his latest book, deliver a running tear-down that includes this gem: 鈥淚 read on the Russian Internet that you and your novels will soon be forgotten.鈥�

If Shteyngart left it at this, 鈥淟ittle Failure鈥� would add up to little more than a comic鈥檚 bitter shtick. But he goes much further, including a trip back to St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) with his parents in his quest to understand where they came from, both literally and emotionally.

He considers the hardships of Hitler鈥檚 871-day siege of Leningrad, during which 750,000 civilians died, many of starvation, and touches on the routine postwar deprivations of Soviet life. His father dreamed of becoming an opera singer but instead settled for a career in engineering 鈥� a deep source of frustration, which he took out on his son by belittling him and, later, his achievements.

After the family finally leaves the USSR in 1979 in a trade deal, which Shteyngart amusingly summarizes as grains-for-Jews, there are hardships aplenty, but also miraculous revelations such as steroid inhalers for asthma, bananas in winter, and toilet paper.

There鈥檚 no joking about his love for his paternal grandmother, his beloved Madonnachka Polya, who sustained him during tough years when his unhappy parents were cursing at each other, and his father and classmates were beating up on him. In fact, a recurrent, baldly confessed worry is, 鈥淲ill someone other than Grandma ever love me?鈥�

He deftly weaves his parents鈥� understandable anxiety about the memoir he鈥檚 writing into the book. 鈥淛ust don鈥檛 write like a self-hating Jew,鈥� they admonish him repeatedly.

鈥淟ittle Failure鈥� is the sort of book usually put off until after one鈥檚 parents are gone. But Shteyngart鈥檚 driving motivation is in part to show his parents who he really is, and how wrong they have been about him. His readers know that already.

Heller McAlpin regularly reviews books for the Monitor, NPR.org, and The Washington Post, and writes the Reading in Common column for The Barnes & Noble Review.