Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

AUDIO: Gary Shteyngart In Conversation

Ten years ago I interviewed Gary Shteyngart for a profile in Zeek.. At the time his hair was brown and mine covered my head. In the time since then he has continued to put out books at a steady rate of one every three or four years, though “Little Failure” in 2014, was a comic autobiography rather than a fictional satire. His earlier novels (“Absurdistan” and “The Russian Debutante’s Handbook”) were about Americans’ crazy adventures in the disintegrating Soviet Empire. His most recent two novels “Super Sad True Love Story” and the current “Lake Success” deal with dystopian visions of America, especially related to the unhealthy distribution and importance of money and credit.

Once Shteyngart arrived at the Forward offices, I introduced him to our founding editor Ab Cahan (pictured), fed him and asked him whether he’d brought in a Jewish joke or story as I’d asked. He told me that he had given it some thought but had not managed to think of a suitable one. “I embody Jewish comedy,” he said in a self-disparaging tone. With that in mind, I sat down for an hour long chat with Shteyngart to discuss satire, parenthood, dystopias and the importance of living near Canada.

Produced by Jono Bernstein

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.