DIVIDE ME BY ZEROBy Lara VapnyarThere are a handful of novelists who excel in describing, often from ludicrously comic heights, the Russian-American experience. Call it the Borscht Shelf: Gary Shteyngart, Boris Fishman and the resplendent Lara Vapnyar. Parents do have their own problems.”) The framing can feel contrived, though it’s in keeping with Vapnyar’s track record: deeply affecting but playful, edging into cutesy. The world hews closely to Vapnyar’s own life (note to an attentive reader: Vapnyar’s mother taught math), but everything about it is slightly notched up, surreal. Consider the photo illustration breezily equating Brezhnev with an iguana, or the one ringing George H. W. Bush’s head with raw chicken thighs, like greasy laurels.

Source: New York Times October 21, 2019 15:11 UTC