Could it be that Ignatius reilly was an incarnation and following the best practices de El Quijote. At least in his notion of the madman stuck in the scene of the fight against windmills made giant by the overflowing imagination. And without a doubt Barry Cohen, the protagonist of this story of Gary Shteyngart, has a lot of that surprising Ignatius for his ability to arouse an animosity and revulsion of everyday antihero.
Except that in this case we also rescued a Dulcinea who gave up before the evident egocentric and grotesque drift of her lover. This is how Barry Cohen presents us with his existence made of foxes and with the only fan of inhabiting fantasy as a modus vivendi.
The point is that these types of antiheroes have their hook. Because not knowing where they can break leads us to an absurdity that at times becomes very tangible. From our confrontations with the official on duty who always needs the last piece of paper (the one that we do not have on hand) to process our request; even the neighbor determined to urinate his dog at the very door of the house... The conspiracies of fools follow his plan, as long as this crazy world keeps turning...
Narcissistic, vulgar, millionaire, childish, self-conscious, arrogant, lackadaisical, useless, infatuated, stereotypical, incapable, irresponsible: Barry Cohen is more than qualified to be the disastrous embodiment of the American dream. When, plagued by business problems, he is informed that his son has been diagnosed with autism, he decides to leave everything, abandon his family and embark on a chaotic and hilarious odyssey in which he will cross the United States by bus in search of an ideal, unreal love. and lost years ago.
This journey of self-knowledge capable of destroying everything, in which Barry will establish bizarre relationships with whoever comes his way, is the faithful reflection of the flight forward of an America that has lost control of itself. This is, after all, the present of a country that he wants be great againperhaps monstrously large.
Through exaggeration, distortion and irrepressible sarcasm, Shteyngart targets the spirit of the times in a corrosive, scandalous and tremendously funny novel.
You can now buy the novel In Lake Success, by Gary Shteyngart, here:
