Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, there have been novels published about other plagues that seem eerily relevant to current times. Emma Donoghue published a book last year, The Pull of the Stars, that was set during the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak. And, of course, I reviewed a book earlier this year called The End of Men, which is set during a fictitious future viral outbreak that kills off 90 percent of the world’s male population. However, I don’t think there’s been a novel set during the current pandemic — until now. Gary Shteyngart, of Super Sad True Love Story fame, has published a novel called Our Country Friends that is set from March to September of 2020. While COVID is unnamed in the book, this is a work that is meant for the “right now” era. It’s a novel that’s not only about the lethal virus but about white nationalism and terrorism, among other potential things.

Our Country Friends is something like a Russian-style novel of years yore, just updated for modern times, as it is set almost entirely on the property belonging to one Sasha Senderovsky, a Russian-born novelist. He lives in a house on a hill in upper New York State with his psychologist wife and precocious eight-year-old adopted daughter. At the outset of the book, Senderovsky has invited a group of his closest friends and friends-of-friends to his home, as he has several bungalows ringing the main residence to shelter them. The goal is to wait out the pandemic, which they think will be over in weeks if not days (ha!), but Senderovsky has a hidden motive for the gathering. He has invited a Hollywood actor, named only as The Actor in the book (but who has all the mannerisms of a middle-aged Alec Baldwin, which is a little unfortunate given recent events), to help him work on a screenplay for a television show based on one of his novels. Sooner than you can say the word “intubation,” everyone is hopping into everyone else’s pants and panties, despite not keeping to physical distancing requirements. (But, then again, they are sort of all in quarantine together, so maybe it’s okay.)

This novel winds up being a slyly funny and slightly devastating book. I read Super Sad True Love Story when it was released about a decade ago and remember only that I gave it a nine out of 10 for a popular webzine that I was writing for at the time,and that it was kind of funny. Thus, I generally like Shteyngart’s writing and appreciated the fact that, here, he was writing to a deadline. After all, he recounts the George Floyd murder and subsequent #BlackLivesMatter movement, so elements of this book’s plot must have been written in real-time. That Shteyngart largely pulls this massive feat off is astonishing to see on the printed page. If you’re looking at pure characters, however, The Actor steals every page that he’s on. (It’s a good thing we see a fair amount of him.) While we’re on the subject, the others who have gathered around the lead character do seem a tad bit unlikable and self-absorbed at the novel’s outset, but they become fully fleshed characters with their own quirks as the novel comes on, and there’s a certain three-dimensionality that the author brings to life in them here.

Sadly, though, for all its positive attributes, Our Country Friends never really takes off and becomes something more than a mediocre book. Part of the reason is that there’s a subplot involving a black pickup truck that’s haunting (and possibly hunting) the main characters of this work that’s never successfully resolved. It’s like Shteyngart had an idea he was running with but was unsure how to handle it fully. That’s one thing. The other thing is that the last little bit of the book is one long fever dream that gets dragged out through chapter after chapter. This gets a little wearying. I know that this is meant to deliver a heavy blow for the fate of one character, but it winds up putting a distance between the reader and the printed page. Our Country Friends is a little overblown and can’t decide if it wants to be (dead) serious or something a little zingier and uplifting given the tumultuous nature of our times. It seems as though Our Country Friends wants its cake and wants to eat it, too.

Still, even though this is not a perfect read by any stretch of the imagination, there is enough here for it to warrant a curio look. Again, the fact that this novel is set a year and a half ago for the most part makes it extremely relevant and current. Shteyngart should win an award for being probably the first to get a novel about COVID-19 out to the marketplace. And there’s enough humor mixed in with the pathos to bring a smile to any reader’s face. Having said all of that, this didn’t affect me to the level of Super Sad True Love Story, even if I have no recollection of what that novel was all about. It’s hard to put a finger on it, but, in some ways, it feels as though Our Country Friends is unfinished, particularly given the fact that we’re still in the middle of this pandemic and it has only been a recent trend that pandemic health guidelines have only just begun to get relaxed for the vaccinated in the part of the world in which I live (Ottawa, Canada). So, take all of this as you will. Read Our Country Friends for its topical nature and warped Russian humour or avoid it like the plague because it’s not quite as well-rounded as it could be. Whatever the case, one thing is for certain: Our Country Friends is one of the first books out of the gate about life during the current situation, and whether it will go down in history for other reasons, such as being a good read, well, who knows? That doesn’t take away this novel’s ambitions, but one must wonder if those ambitions are the sole reason for this one’s existence. In the end, I’m just sayin’. But, if you want, check this book out.

Shteyngart's work either really works for me or doesn't, and this one just didn't say anything special to me.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I thought it was an interesting premise, and the first book I’ve read about the pandemic. While it was entertaining and I liked some of the characters, I’m not sure how I liked reading about quarantining and the pandemic. Perhaps because it is still going on I struggled a bit.

Gary Shteyngart’s sardonic work has always been a dark, lovely, and fun experience for me. I follow his work closely, and appreciate the sharp teeth of his honest candor that can both sting and tickle when it rears up bites mid-sentence. After all, who else can write about one's experience with a botched later-in-life circumcision that draws near universal acclaim for a combination of sharp, intriguing, funny, and tragic energy (besides Jonathan Cameron Mitchell, of course)? His newest venture is an absolute wonder to behold: a pandemic novel, set and released during the pandemic – a feat that would seem so ridiculously stupid had he not executed it with the undeniable brilliance, heart, humor, and perfection we’ve seen in everything he has let loose on this world.

The story covers the lives of a group of friends and acquaintances as they descend upon a small country backdrop where they are stuck (unbeknownst to them) for the first six months of the pandemic. The group includes an app developer, a Hollywood screenwriter, an actor, a child, and some have known one another for decades while others are just happening upon a scene they aren’t aware is about to unfold. There are dalliances and whispers of divorce, while everyone navigates their interpersonal struggles through the invisible cloud of COVID when they emerge from their separate bungalows on the property.

Shteyngart presents some truly remarkable moments in this piece. First, we enter the novel with the strict awareness (through the simple use of a Dramatis Personae list) that we are entering a play of sorts. Our stage is less a place where we sit and observe while the fourth wall is removed and we passively understand that they can move on and off stage while the action continues, and more an enclosed ape den at the zoo – we know they can’t leave, and they know they can’t either. So, what happens as we observe? A beautifully Chekhovian dream that is less 19th century Russian stage work and more a 21st century Wes Anderson slant of what our American hearts truly do when driven to the despairs of isolation. In Shteyngart’s hands, it masterfully executed – and he assures us he knows exactly what he is doing as he tips his wool fedora to his audience more than once in referencing (and embodying) Chekhov’s work in the very format he is working in. Of course, you don’t need to be familiar with Chekhov’s work to get any of this, but English majors like me are guaranteed to swoon in the final act. Finally, the topical contents of the novel cover everything from the pandemic itself, to the economy, to race and identity in America, the nature and structure of romantic, sexual, and platonic relationships, and more – a smattering of the core humanity we all struggled with over the last two years presented with a kind wit and tenderness.

This book was amazing, and I would be happy to never read another pandemic novel as I am sure it would be a depressing letdown after this beautiful experience. Shteyngart is a master of his art, and I can say with authority that it is best exercised in this new novel among all of his others. I think it is time I take a jog back through his catalogue – always a pleasure and unmatched among his peers writing in the satiric dramedy style he is known for. Shteyngart delivered a beautiful book for a complicated time, and I wouldn’t have wanted to rehash it with anyone else.

Our Country Friends will be birthed with joyous fanfare and great aplomb tomorrow, November 2, 2021 from Penguin Random House.

This may be my favorite book of the year. It's also the first novel written by Shteyngart that I've read and the first set during the pandemic, a topic many authors wanted to avoid throughout 2020 as we all had too much of the reality to bear.

The plot: Eight people come together at a compound in the country upstate to weather the pandemic lockdown. There is the main house they call the House on the Hill where they will all congregate for dinner and conversation and five separate bungalows. Most of the group have been friends for years (and bring that shared-history with them as baggage) but there are a couple of newcomers to the group, including a famous actor, and the eight-year-old adopted daughter of the compound's owner.

For this captive audience, many weighty issues arise: love, lust, friendship, betrayal, social media, immigration, racism and even the specter of death. These are all fallible human beings who make plenty of mistakes. What's superb is how insightfully the author treats his characters, some of whom grow quite a bit in these months spent in isolation from the world at large. There are laugh-out-loud moments as well as tears. This character-driven book will not be for everyone but it was one I found quite satisfying and memorable.

I received an arc of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Many thanks for the opportunity to be introduced to a fine writer who is new to me.

A comedy of errors explodes in this novel about old friends (or are they frenemies) who come together at the country home of one of them who is fighting to keep up a facade of success.

This was my first Gary Shteyngart book and I don't think it will be my last. I read it because the plot just sounded irresistible -- 7 ultra-cosmopolitan friends gather in the countryside to wait out the pandemic? Ok! Plus, I love an ensemble cast, so this was right up my alley. The book was many-layered. So many totally unexpected personalities, bizarre love triangles, and situations ensued, all written absolutely GORGEOUSLY. There was a sense of humor that I have never experienced before that offsets and mitigates the tragedy at the end - the book was almost daffy, but then again, simultaneously, it was dead serious. (Is this a Russian tradition? A Jewish one?) The dramas of love, and the melodramas, the pain and the beauty, are told largely from the POVs of the male characters. This is different from most mainstream fiction, and quite effective. Love in its many forms are explored here -- love of a child, platonic love, sororal/fraternal love, romantic love, love mixed with pity -- and then there's the opposite of love explored: a marriage where love has ceased to exist.

I do not want to spoil the ending but I do want to say that I've never read anything like it. It's a sort of fever dream brought on by illness, or pain, or pharmaceuticals, or all of the above. But it's poignant and beautiful and sad.

I will recommend to all my lovers of literary fiction. This is one of the first great 2020 pandemic novels.

What a treat! Our Country Friends is full of humor and drama. The story centers around seven “friends” and one child spending time together during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I can’t say I am eager to read books or watch shows/movies about the pandemic but I love Gary Shteyngart’s writing and was delighted by the opportunity to read this novel. It is silly in many places, full of mini-mysteries, intriguing plot lines, and well-observed intricacies of relationships between old and new friends and acquaintances. The prose is energetic with a touch of absurdity. I could see this easily adapted for the stage or screen.

I recommend this enthusiastically, a must-read for fans of Shteyngart’s earlier works and anyone looking for a funny, touching, and surprising story about how the effects of COVID-19 (and modern technology) are tearing us apart and also bringing us together.

Thank you to Random House and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sasha and Masha (and their daughter Nat) have no idea how long their house guests will stay or what will happen when they ask them to come visit in March 2020. Yes, it's a pandemic novel- a house party that doesn't seem to end at a compound in the Hudson Valley. There's food, there's wine, there's injudicious coupling and discussion, The seven characters-which include Ed, Vinood, Karen, Dee, and the Actor are all quite different but they share a voice sometimes. This is high energy and some readers might find themselves struggling with the language and long long sentences. Underneath the satire and the comedy, however, there's a heart. You might recognize these people and their struggles, not only with the pandemic but with themselves. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For Shteyngart's fans and fans of literary fiction.

Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart is a recommended novel following a group of friends plus one movie star set during the pandemic lockdown.

It’s March 2020 and the lockdown is approaching. Sasha Senderovsky, a Russian-born novelist, Masha, his psychiatrist wife, and Nat, his adopted daughter who is obsessed with K-pop, are at their New York estate where Sasha has built a colony of bungalows. He has invited a group of friends to stay at his colony for the lockdown. Arriving are long time friends Ed Kim, a wealthy citizen of the world, Karen Cho, a successful Korean American app developer, and Vinood Mehta, a struggling Indian American writer. Joining the group is a former writing student of Sasha's, Dee Cameron, and The Actor. Once they all arrive they have no idea how long they will be staying in this bitter sweet comedy of manners.

There are certain parts of Our Country Friends where the descriptions are beautifully rendered and stunning in this novel set during a notable period in history. In a modified locked room scenario morphed with a surreal comedy of manners, these characters are all stuck together much longer than they originally anticipated and were not prepared emotionally for the experience. (The plumbing was also not prepared for the group.) I liked parts of this novel and didn't care for other parts. This uncertainty in my reaction is perhaps reflected in the novel itself.

Part of my hesitation in rating it is I didn't like any of the characters (except, perhaps, Nat and her obsession with K-pop) and couldn't relate to their experiences at all. All the awkward love stories between these people were simply uncomfortable. They are not truly fully realized characters but more a representation of different types of people. I would be enjoying certain parts of the novel and then something would happen or be said that sent it plummeting. Additionally, having never actually experienced the lock down, a time of even more work, it is unrelatable. I'll look forward to Shteyngart's next novel.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Random House.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, and Amazon.

This is an interesting book. It begins in the early days of the pandemic, as a group of friends gather at the country estate of a successful author who is increasingly down on his luck. His main hope is that the television series he is developing with a famous actor is picked up by the cable network that has commissioned it. So the author brings together two of his high school friends, one who developed a very successful dating app, the other who once hoped to be a writer but is now a short order cook; their other friend, who largely lives off his family money traveling the world; one of his former students, who published a successful book of essays, and the actor himself. Together with the author's wife, the only one that seems that concerned about the pandemic, and their daughter, the group spends the next six months together, as old hurts, new loves, and questions of what the future holds coexist with the realities of life in relative isolation.

This novel was an interesting exploration of the nature of family and friendships, where they overlap and where they diverge, and how they are impacted by internal and external pressures. Highly recommended!

You will either love or totally dislike this book. I kept trying to like it, but I found the characters dysfunctional and unlikeable and that was it for me. The purported humor was hard for me to see.

I will recommend this book to anyone who already loves and understands this author. I was very excited when this ARC became available because, to my knowledge, there are no other books out there yet that are pretty much all about Covid and the friends and family who get trapped together because of it.

Apparently, I do not have the type of sense of humor needed for this book, nor do I have the education for it. I am not as politically correct as one needs to be to read this book.

Endless run-on sentences, dislikeable characters, bigotry, prejudice, and out-and-out babble predominates what I have managed to read.

I am done. Covid has made life too difficult to force myself to finish something this painful.

*ARC provided by the publisher.

Big Chill meets Covid-19. Sasha & his wife Masha Senderovsky are hosting a multi-cultural reunion of his high school friends, at their over-leveraged House on the Hill. There's a lot going on in here, from spirited adopted child bonding issues, blonde ingenue with questionable politics, Hollywood superstar overcome by out-of-control tech app, repressed memories and first loves, medical directives... and in the background 80's pop-culture and 2020 memes and fads are delineated as America's morality crumbles. There were phrases I wasn't familiar with before reading this, for example loose motions and secret sharer; I still don't understand what the despised California vineyard logo is all about. But Gary Shteyngart definitely entertains.

I read this funny novel when I was on vacation and laughed out loud several times. Also fit in well with the whole pandemic thing we've been living through.

Shteyngart writes a novel that centers around the COVID-19 pandemic in a poignant manner with a side of the US in the era of Trump. It is a fast read that packs an emotional punch and gets you very invested in the characters. It is well worth the read.

Different kind of novel from Shyeyngart but very enjoyable. First with COVID-19 as a subplot that I’ve come across, which is a character unto itself.
Great characters, moving the plot along.

A disappointing, self-indulgent novel that is too long, goes nowhere and leaves plot lines unfinished. The characters are unlikeable, insecure, and unreasonably juvenile in their thoughts and interactions. I found myself putting this book down, and then dreading picking it up again, and in the end, I waded through more than half in the hope of finding some redeeming quality, then skimmed to the end to make sure I didn’t miss anything - it wasn’t worth the effort. The premise was intriguing, but the story just didn’t deliver.

Classic Shteyngart, if you like his work you will like this. It has a pandemic isolationist vibe mixed with The Big Chill (in a way), so it's relatable but with the original and unique prose you can expect from this writer.

It's March 2020. The world is shutting down, and writer Sasha Senderovsky has the perfect plan to survive the apocalypse: invite a group of friends to his country house (alongside five bungalows, built to reflect a writers' colony he remembers from the Soviet Union), load up the pantry with expensive alcohol, and see what happens.

Hilarity ensues.

The core of this group is Sasha's closest friends since high school: Karen Cho, whose latest dating app has made millions, and Vinod Mehta, the guy who helped Sasha's writing career but who never found success himself (and who never gave up the torch for Karen that has burned since high school). Sasha's wife, Masha, spends her days providing online therapy to anxiety- and FoxNews-stricken, elderly Russian emigres.

To the core four, Shteyngart adds Ed Kim, a worldly man who acts as the group's chef; The Actor, brought in to complete a screenplay Sasha hopes to sell to a network; the Senderovskys' adopted daughter Natasha; and Dee, a southern girl, former student of Sasha's, brought in to liven things up a bit, encourage The Actor to see things Sasha's way, and to face the brunt of "cancel culture."

Living out in the country, the commune finds itself surrounded by Blue Lives Matter flags and suspicious black pick-up trucks turning into the long driveway. The events of the crisis--the murder of George Floyd, especially--are noted, although the Election story lies deep in the background. Cancel culture and Silicon Valley overreach also feature prominently. And one character vividly struggles with Covid-19 in an unforgettable section of the book.

Shteyngart's satire is razor-sharp. The excesses of cancel culture and the earnestness of white liberals get their fare share of send-offs. The bit that made me laugh out loud was when the Network responded to Sanderovsky's screenplay about characters in a downtrodden, village somewhere in the former Soviet empire:
"It's the subject matter. Oligarchs, hookers, payoffs. A former Soviet republic won't seem that different from 2020 America to the viewer."

Doesn't that make it pertinent?" Senderovsky asked.

"No, it makes it depressing."


This is the fourth Shteyngart book I've read, and while it had me laughing, I probably missed out on some of the references, too. The characterization only reached deep enough to set up a handful of gags for each character. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy in return for an honest review.