Book Clubs: Online Discussion «

Window display project

WORD is seeking artists (amateur and accomplished) to create original window displays.

We are looking for ideas involving, but not specific to, literature, books, the neighborhood and our store, with occasional window displays geared toward in-store events. Of course we are also open to all sorts of exhibits and eagerly await your thoughts and visions.

Please drop off or email a proposal which can consist of anything you see fit to communicate your idea (sketches, photographs, a letter, etc.) along with your contact information.

Unfortunately we cannot offer any compensation for materials or installation hours, but we can offer a beautiful well-lit space to display your work to the public for one month, twenty-four hours a day.

Book Clubs: Online Discussion

Are you too busy to join WORD’s book club or would you like to continue a conversation you began in one of our in-store book clubs? Discuss WORD’s book of the month here at our Online Book Club by using the comments section below.

A few questions to get you started:

How did your opinion of the book change throughout?
Would you recommend the book to someone else?
What was your favorite aspect of the book?
Your least favorite aspect of the book?
Were your expectations of the book correct?

[Remember the book of the month is always 10% off in the store the month prior to the book club meetings.]

One Response to “Book Clubs: Online Discussion”

Corey, on October 6th, 2007 at 2:12 pm Said:

“Absurdistan” tries very hard to be satirical, spoofing globalization, foreign attitudes towards the US and democracy. Unfortunately, the author fails on most accounts. There is unformed humor to set off the misery of the main character but it’s not reconciled with its subject matter.

I began liking this book and Misha, the protagonist, for his slovenliness, over-arching and self-absorption. As the book continues, Mr. Shteyngart does not make you care about him, alas, the reader feels sad for him (and frankly for anyone who continues to read the book). As Misha becomes engrossed in his quest for an American visa, traveling to the imaginary world of Absurdistan, one cares less and less for the vulgarity and meanness in the prose. Mischa is unsympathetic and the book feels increasingly synthetic and contrived. Absurdistan echoes real life upheaval in the Balkans or Middle East which is not amusing.

This “superfluous man,” Mischa, cannot get out of bed, is lazy, selfish and contrite. The reader is left feeling like the author patched him together for the sake of argument not as a real entity. The author wants us to see the “American impounded in a Russian,” using his obese size to make the point. Physicality is used not only as metaphor but seemingly, the whole plot.

I did enjoy the sense of humor used in some sections. Describing his penis as an “abused iguana” made me laugh solely for the vision it incorporated in my head not for the idea about Mischa having a lizard-like existence of melancholy and slugging around. The use of rap and hip-hop slang was a good way of keeping the story contemporary and adding a light touch. I was also looking forward to the basic idea of Mischa going to Absurdistan to further his cause of getting back to the US while everyone around him is thwarting it. That’s where my enjoyment ended.

The rest of the narrative swerves out of control, leaving this reader exhausted by the lack of clarity and momentum. It all lumps in the end, making me feel like an iguana who has just crossed desert terrain. If thats what Mr. Shteyngart was going for, he achieved the goal. Honesty is irrelevant in Mischa and that makes him an untrustworthy narrator, which I have difficulty in responding to. The novel as a whole does not seem real, not Mishca and especially not the nation of Absurdistan.

The author clearly wanted to write a cutting satire but only sometimes (mostly in the beginning) gets there. The ethnic tensions are unrealized and fail to commemorate anything about foreign relations. There is no overall power in the writing. It wimps out when it should shout out. Mr Shteyngart’s efforts fail to meet the goal I think he intended to reach and thusly, failed to raise this readers interest. I would not recommend this book because its very difficult to empathize with the actions of characters and most disappointing, fails to make the title nation come alive.