Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart

To be sure, Shteyngart is a good writer.

He succeeds in making a fat, entitled, child of a Russian gangster sort-of sympathetic.  The book is vaguely reminiscent of A Confederacy of Dunces in that respect.

There’s also some sort of satire going on here in the fictional country of Absurdistan, with the very real characters of Halliburton and oil and “rebuilding” and government contracts and oh who knows what else.

This story is both amusing and disturbing and often gross (seriously… I don’t need to ever read again such detailed and vivid descriptions of the body of an enormously fat man ever again).

But really… the man is a good writer.

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall

I thought his Lonely Polygamist was a masterpiece, and this earlier work is pretty darn good, too.

We follow the life of a half-Native-American/half-Caucasian boy who had his head run over by a mailman at the age of 7.

And, um… hmm.

Okay, I’m thinking of ways to describe this book, but they all sound depressing in my head.  It’s not a depressing book… it’s just a roller-coaster of hardship with interesting characters.

Brady Udall has a deft touch with his characters.  He can make them gritty without being depressing, though in hindsight, they really should be.

Good book.  I’m going to pick up anything else he’s written, ’cause he’s 2 for 2.