I guess I don’t care for precocious children pov novels. This one was kind of annoying frankly. The plot and style were not for me and I really struggled to finish it.

As always, Shteyngart provides compelling, very flawed characters. Here the story is told through the eyes of a child worried about a good many things, but one of the main ones is the possibility that her future vote will count less because she isn't white. At the same time her father, whom she idolizes, is a mess and she is trying to understand that in the broader sense of the world. All of this would be rough enough, but she also has many social issues making her have difficulties making friends. Shteyngart continues to make strong social commentary with just enough humor that you can read it without coming away too depressed.

Gary Shteyngart’s new novel, Vera, or Faith, arrives with a sly sidestep. Like Borat before him, he steps away from center stage in favor of his fictional daughter. Instead of boring us with a middle-aged writer mining his own neuroses, Igor Shmulkin just provides a sad sideshow for his hopeful fictional child.
https://bookandfilmglobe.com/books/vera-or-faith-gary-shteyngart/

** Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review **
This novel blends sharp humor with touching moments of vulnerability, creating a story that’s both quirky and deeply human. Shteyngart’s wit is as sharp as ever, but here it’s tempered with genuine warmth. The characters are vivid, with flaws and strengths that feel true to life. I was especially drawn to the relationship at the heart of the book, which balances complexity with affection. The writing is energetic and layered, making it a compact yet emotionally rich read. It’s the kind of book that leaves you smiling even as you’re thinking about its deeper themes.

Vera, or Faith follows a 10 year old Korean-American girl living in a futuristic United States. Vera lives with her father (the editor of a magazine), her stepmother Anne Mom (the e being added as an ode from Anne Mom to Anne Frank), and her step brother Dylan. Vera can be described as a precocious child, with one of the main recurring plot points being a diary of things she still needs to know. This takes place in a time in which a special amendment is considered being adopted, giving an additional three fifths of a vote to “exceptional Americans.” Vera, desperate to connect with her absent mother after finding out she’s fallen ill, finds herself in a debate at school. She is to argue the affirmative for the voting amendment to be enacted, which is against her own self interest. The story follows Vera and her household as she prepares for the debate, documenting the comedic coming of age of a young girl in a post democracy America. Vera is a charming narrator however the style was personally not for me. I can appreciate the thought that went into writing from this perspective though. Overall, this was a very fun read!

Vera is an anxious 10-year-old with no friends as she starts the new school year. She lives with her father, stepmother and her half-brother and worries all the time that they won't stay married. In fact she worries so much about things that she can hardly sleep at night. Vera has always been told that she was such a difficult baby that her mother couldn't handle it and left. What kind of burden is that for a child to carry? Because there are so many things Vera doesn't understand at 10, she keeps a diary of 'Things I Still Need to Know.' She is a smart, delightful girl who just needs more love, it seems to me.

The story takes a bit of a different turn over the politics her parents get involved with and later still, over rules for women in this (futuristic?) society. That part of the book didn't work as well for me.

Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this new novel via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

Gary Shteyngart does it again with gem of a book that captivates you at word one and makes you sad when you turn the last page-don't miss this book, if you are already a fan of his work this book will remind you why and if your are not already a fan this book will make you one.

If you are looking for a Gary Shteyngart novel that you coudl actually read on the beach then this is one for you. I mean times are so depressing now that serious can be tolling on you. This is both serious but also fun to read because Mr. Shteyngart rarely makes a novel dull. This one is about a Vera , a child grwoing up in America and trying to figure her way through things going on around her. Her parents are getting a divorce and she's trying to find her birth mom. In the meantime America is going through some crazy times. He blends this in telling the story of Vera trying to find out who she and a country trying to figure out where it's heading and doing things taht are against the norm. It's totally a book for our times. So please do yourself a favor grab this book, get a nce big glass of ice tea, head to a quiet place and enjoy this marvelous book. You deserve it!!! Thanks to Random House for the read!!!

Set in the not-too-distant future, Shteyngart's new book Vera, or Faith, tells the story of precocious 10-year-old Vera. Vera is a nerd, super-smart, a math whiz, shy and unlikely to engage in conversation with others and without close friends until she is assigned to work with a classmate with whom she bonds. Her goal is to be "a woman in STEM." Her home life is chaotic. Her father is a hard-drinking Russian emigre who cannot make a success of the marginal magazine he owns. Her stepmother is a WASP from Boston who has a "small" trust fund. Vera's brother has not been gifted with Vera's intellectual prowess; she often does his homework for him. The family tension is thick and tension grows when Vera overhears her parents talking about someone who has been diagnosed with cancer and assumes they're referring to her birth mother, a Korean whose last name she doesn't know. Vera's search for her birth mom and for her own identity and confidence, will hold readers' interest. They will not be disappointed by the book's ending.

Precocious 10-year-old Vera narrates as she endeavors to understand her identity, uncovering family secrets along the way. Gary Shteyngart, author of "Super Sad True Love Story," introduces a cast of sympathetic if imperfect characters — including a particularly chatty self-driving car and a friendly chess-playing computer — to tell a darkly funny coming-of-age tale.

Vera is a wildly smart, impulsive, intuitive girl. She reminds me of my own 10 year-old daughter. This is a great story told in a tone and voice that perfectly mirrors the mind of a child this age. A solid commentary on what it's like for a child to grow up through the turbulent events we're facing. I loved it 💙

Vera, or Faith, is a very interesting book. It's told from Vera's perspective, an extremely precocious 10 year old, living in the not too distant future with her family. Vera has never met her Korean birth mother, but is trying to navigate her family in a world that values whiteness and lineage. It's a short book, and the author really brings you into Vera's mind. I just want to give her a big sandwich hug and make her feel better.

This is great fun - excellent humour and a good story too.

Our main character is Vera, 10 years old, super smart and - because of that - having difficulties making friends.

One day she overhears her father (a progressive intellectual of sorts and pretty insufferable, but a great character) explain to her stepfather that her biological mother has cancer, making Vera want to meet her at all cost.

The novel is set in the near future United States, perhaps 10 years from now - AI plays a much greater role in everyday life and politically the extreme right has been doing well in implementing all kinds of idiotic policies.

I had never read Gary Shteyngart before, but - in his own words - he is a writer "we might need to take seriously".

I've long wanted to read a book by Gary Shteyngart, and Vera, or Faith turned out to be a very strong place to start. The writing had just the right amount of poignancy and the story had just the right amount of depth and humor to fit my tastes, The story felt both timeless and extremely modern to me. I'd definitely be interested in checking out Shteyngart's future works and maybe even delve into his backlist.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the complimentary eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

A not-too-far-in-the-the-future dystopia seen from the delightful perspective of a most unusual and brainy 10-year-old girl.

Narrator Vera Bradford-Shmulkin has a Korean American birth mother, a Russian Jewish father, and a WASP stepmother. She also has a younger (and definitely less intelligent) half-brother, who makes anxious Vera feel like she’s something of an outsider in the family. At school she is socially awkward and deals with that by reading chess manuals at recess and lunch. She has only two friends: her stepmother’s friend Cecile, and Kaspie, an opinionated AI chess computer, but has high hopes that Yumi, a Japanese girl at school, might become her best friend. When things start to fall apart at home, Vera, along with Yumi, decides to find her birth mother.

We only gradually see the way the US has degenerated. The “Five-Three” initiative seeks to change the constitution to give white Americans 5/3 of a vote to balance out their now minority status, and many states have become “cycle through,” focused on women’s reproductive status.

The plot is fairly incidental as the main attraction here is Vera. She keeps a “Things I Still Need to Know Diary” in which she jots down words and phrases that adults use that she doesn’t understand. Even so, she has a broad vocabulary incorporating idioms and cliches, signified here by putting them in quote marks, though she doesn’t always understand the nuances of the expressions and there’s much entertainment here as well as the poignancy of a bright child still grasping at understanding the adult world.

Many of the reviews I’ve read of this have said that this is not Shteyngart’s best work. I’ve not read any of his other novels and absolutely LOVED this. Maybe once I’ve read his, apparently, better novels I’ll downgrade this. Personally I found this to be both a joyful and touching view of the world through the eyes of an endearing, if rather ungainly, young girl.

Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

This is an excellent little novel, one that I feel like getting many people to read, but I worry that it’s aimed at a niche audience. I found myself snorting with laughter a lot, and stressed for the characters, and happy for them, and overall engaged with it.

But while art doesn’t have to aim for everyone, I do feel this could have benefitted from aiming a little more down the middle, or leaning into satirization more than it did. Initially, I felt like Vera’s parents and her school were meant to send up some of the absurdness of being Very Online and Very Woke, and while I do think that was in there (particularly the beginning), they also felt like earnest representations that counted on readers like me (liberal/progressives) to sympathize with their views and values, not just who they are as people.

I think that Shteyngart is an excellent writer with the ability to make any character sympathetic (or an object of scorn), it did make for some odd tonal shifts throughout the novel.

Really, even though I’ve spent a lot of time talking about that, I think Shteyngart made several characters really feel like flesh and blood, especially Vera. My heart often ached for her, and her struggles to connect and find herself were often moving.

I really enjoyed the book, enough to think about reading it again just to see what breadcrumbs he might have sprinkled throughout to help build up to the conclusion.

Very enjoyable.

Delighted to include this title in the July edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national lifestyle and culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

Vera is a precocious 10 year old girl. She spends her days wishing to make connections with other kids at school and hoping that her parents won't divorce, something that seems increasingly likely in this complicated world. On top of all her worries, Vera is also preoccupied with the idea of her birth mother. Vera doesn't fit cleanly into her world but her observations of the dynamics around her are truly fascinating to read. Covering a lot of ground and many hot-button issues, Vera, or Faith is classic Gary Shteyngart.

THE BEST NOVEL OF THE YEAR! This eloquent, brilliant novella sweeps you entirely up in its wake.
The entire novel is told from the perspective of Vera, a precocious, genius, perfectionist 10-year old. Vera’s half Korean and half American and is growing up in her white Russian Dad’s house along with her Bostonian Brahmin stepmom and half-brother. Vera is both brilliant and observant, humorous and naïve, while veering to extreme anxiety and perhaps social autism that involves compulsive hand-flapping, extreme difficulty cutting off her run-on thoughts, being bullied at school, and having a tough time making any friends. Her younger brother mostly punches her, her stay-at-home Stepmom tries to offer up social cues, and her completely selfish father focuses mainly on how to sell his struggling magazine to a wealthy investor and or otherwise keep the family income flowing. Vera’s father has never explained Vera’s Korean mom’s complete absence from her life to the point of not even telling Vera her mother’s name, whether she has any Korean relatives, and more recently telling Vera vaguely that her Korean mom may be dying of cancer.
The novel takes place in a near dystopian future: in a big city resonant of New York City, technology has advanced to the point of not just smart cars, but smart cars with distinctive personalities of their own that bounce off their owner’s persona. AI assistants stand at the ready for thoughtful help. Vera has an AI computer chessboard, Kaspie, who not only plays chess with her but also infuses her thoughts with Korean culture as Kaspie himself as an AI created in South Korea and offers up psychological insights about her Dad. There is intense civil unrest that takes the MAGA movement to a new extreme: constant White Grievance marches and state-run check points to test any woman of menstruating age for possible pregnancy and seeking an illegal abortion.

There’s also a huge state movement afoot to give Whites a 5/3 majority votes in elections – so that their voice does not get diluted. Even though Vera’s partially Korean, her white teacher assigns her and a Japanese girl in her class the assignment of defending the 5/3 rule in a debate. Arguing against them: two “cool” boys who are wealthy and white. As Vera preps for the debate, she gains both a new best friend as well as confidence – especially with breathing and acting lessons from her beloved Aunt. All the debate prep parallels the upcoming State constitutional conventions to vote on ratifying this Constitutional amendment.

Vera’s plagued by her childhood doubts ranging from “Am I loveable?” to how to quiet her flapping arms and run on talking to how to get all A’s to grow up to be a successful “Woman in STEM.” But Vera’s also fighting off despair as she tries to heal her father’s broken second marriage to her stepmom and fix her father’s cavalier, selfish inattention to her. But all this is infused with deep humor as the social pathos ratches up especially around quoted adult phrases she’s picked up from her parents and her many, many entries in her “Things I Still Need to Know” diary.

Vera, whose name means Faith in Russian, struggles to keep the faith in a world turned ruinous. Standing ovation!

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

I loved this story told from the point of view of Vera, a precocious ten year old who is most likely on the autism spectrum. I loved seeing her development and her realization that her dad is not perfect and her mom (adoptive) does in fact love her very much. The side characters were also well developed and I loved her friend Yumi and her Aunt Celeste. This ended up being a very quick read!