The Russian (Authors) Are Coming
The Soviets Are Writing: Gary Shteyngart?s forthcoming memoir is one of many books that signal the literary arrival of authors from the former Soviet Union. Image by getty images
One thing we know for sure is that 2014 will be a big year for young post-Soviet Jews who write in English.
Gary Shteyngart’s forthcoming memoir, which he did not title “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Jewness,” has already called attention to itself with a four-minute video that almost but not quite redeems the genre of the “book trailer” from its utter insipidity.
After “Little Failure” appears in January, we’ll get Lara Vapnyar’s “The Scent of Pine,” Ellen Litman’s “Mannequin Girl,” and, later in the year, Boris Fishman’s debut “A Replacement Life,” Anya Ulinich’s graphic novel “Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel,” and then David Bezmozgis’s third book, “The Betrayers.”
Expect trend pieces, in the Forward and elsewhere, which link up these fictions with demographic data about the growing prominence of post-Soviets in every other area of American Jewish life. And if anyone is still expecting this cohort to run out of material, the fictional smorgasbord will prove once again (maybe once and for all?) that the post-Soviet Jews weren’t just a cultural flash in the pan back in the aughts. These children of the Cold War have occupied the gooey center of 21st century American literature, and they’re not going anywhere.
Josh Lambert is the academic director of the Yiddish Book Center, visiting assistant professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of “Unclean Lips: Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
