Our Country Friends

I'd not read anything by Gary Shteyngart but had read glowing reviews of this book and began reading it with high expectations. Sasha Senderovsky owns a compound with bungalows and a main house, much like the one he attended as a child in Russia. When the pandemic starts he invites four old friends and an actor associate to escape the city and quarantine with himself, his wife and their young adopted Korean daughter in the Hudson Valley. The friends spend their time eating and drinking, facing personal truths and uncovering and confronting past betrayals.  Does anyone remember the movie The Big Chill? This is a lot like that. Sasha depends on a project with The Actor in order to remain financially solvent and makes some unconscionable decisions to make it work. We learn that self interest has also motivated him in the past. In fact all the characters are selfish and immature. The threat of Covid is real and in the background is redneck America complete with guns and racism. I was drawn into the story and was eager to discover how it would unfurl. Unfortunately the ending was flat and unsatisfying and the characters are revealed, without exception, as shallow stereotypes. The book was initially so promising but was ultimately disappointing.