Gary Shteyngart: Sexy Punctuator

Gary Shteyngart, Leningrad's newest literary über-babe, has just published his latest comic novel, Absurdistan. I have not read this book and I likely will not, as I read short stories almost exclusively. Though I may need to make an exception for Mr. Shteyngart because according to The New York Times Book Review, he's a big fan of the comma and the semicolon, which means he writes long and elaborate sentences with many clauses. Perhaps, then, he is my destiny. There's nothing, dear readers, more sexy than an uninterrupted string of dependent and independent clauses elegantly linked with the proper punctuation and -- when necessary -- coordinating conjunctions. Now is it me, or is it hot in here?

The coolest feature of this book, if you ask me, is that one character, a lecherous Russian emigré who cashes in on his hot accent to pick up chicks, has a name very similar to Shteyngart's. In other words, this writer created an unflatteringly sleazy character who he then very clearly associates with himself. Which, that's funny, meaning, adorable!



I do love a man with a keen sense of satire and an excellent command of his sentence structure. Shteyngart won lots of critical acclaim for a previous novel, The Russian Debutante's Handbook, and the reviewers are buzzing about this next title.

But in the long run, who cares? Look at this guy! Isn't he yummy?