Absurdistan Literary Elements

Satirical novel

St. Petersbury and Absurdistan, Russia, around the year 2000, but flashbacks are included to various stages of Misha's past in both Russia and the United States.

The novel, told from a first-person limited perspective, follows the adventures and thought processes of Misha, an overweight and privileged Russian dilettante.

Humorous, irreverent, satirical

Protagonist: Misha Vainburg, a young, overweight Russian Jew with a desire to return to the United States to see his girlfriend. Antagonist: everyone preventing him from doing so, along with the circumstances that seem to be conspiring against him.

Misha wants to escape his boring life in St. Petersburg and return to New York, where he believes his girlfriend Rouella is waiting for him. He is prevented from doing so, however, by his father's reputation: the INS won't let him come back to the U.S. The novel follows Misha's attempt to obtain a fake passport from Absurdistan, a fake Russian city, in order to return to the Bronx.

In Absurdistan, Misha's plans go sideways as he accidentally becomes ensnared in a fake civil war that turns out to be a plot to take over the city. He is forced to abandon his plans and go on the run in the Russian countryside, and the events of September 11 ensure that he will never reach the United States.

The extraordinary desire Misha shows at the beginning of the novel to return to New York foreshadows the incredible lengths he will go to in order to try to achieve this goal.

“This is a book about love.” (Prologue)

This novel references many real-life places and events, including the Bronx and other places in New York, but the most significant allusion comes at the novel's end, which takes place on September 11, 2001. The terrorist attack ensures that Misha will never be able to return to the United States.

Misha is obese, and Shteyngart does nothing to minimize this fact; he infuses every one of Misha's thoughts and actions with hilarious references to his weight. For example, while eating, he describes the following event: “My body trembled inside my leviathan Puma tracksuit, my heroic gut spinning counterclockwise, my two-scoop breasts slapping against each other" (Ch. 1). Misha also refers to himself as "an incorrigible fatso" and makes many allusions to his weight throughout the novel.

Misha goes to Absurdistan in order to get a fake passport to allow him back into the U.S. Paradoxically, the trip ensures his continued presence in Russia, as circumstances force him to go on the run, so the trip to Absurdistan was counterproductive.

The book's prologue both opens and closes with "This is a book about love."

“An ardent Stalinist and faithful contributor to Leningrad Pravda until Alzheimer’s took what was left of her senses" (Prologue).

“Soft late-summer breezes minister to my wounds" (Prologue)