Uneven and slightly indulgent, Gary Shteyngart's fourth novel, Lake Success, nevertheless charms thanks to the author's trademark warm-hearted humor and practiced satirical eye. Hedge fund manager Barry Cohen hasn't been a success in work or family life. Though the fund he manages has hit the $2 billion mark, he's being questioned about insider trading; his younger wife, Seema, is growing less interested in him by the day; and his 3-year-old son, Shiva, is autistic. There's only one thing for Barry to do: run away.

So he does, tossing his smartphone and black AmEx to the wayside and boarding a Greyhound in his Citibank vest. Maybe, Barry thinks, reuniting with his college girlfriend is the answer to his problems. Juxtaposed with Barry's picaresque journey is Seema's more mundane—if life in a luxurious Manhattan apartment can be said to be mundane—set of challenges as she tries to accept Shiva's limitations and embarks on an affair with a neighbor.

Caught up in the chaos of the 2016 presidential campaign, the fractured country reflects the fractures in Barry's soul, and as ever, Shteyngart reveals America's frailties with darkly mocking humor that never swerves into nihilism. He is likewise forgiving of his characters' many failings. In the case of Barry, that indulgence is occasionally frustrating: Given his many privileges and avoidance of responsibility, the self-pity and lack of self-awareness Barry demonstrates for nearly the entire novel becomes tiring. Nevertheless, the verve of Shteyngart's writing keeps the pages turning and makes Lake Success an overall winner for readers.

 

This article was originally published in the September 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In his first novel in seven years, relentlessly best-booked Shteyngart (e.g., Absurdistan) introduces us to ultrarich but clueless and self-absorbed hedge fund manager Barry Cohen, upset by an SEC investigation and his son's diagnosis of autism, who runs cross-country on a Greyhound bus as visions of uncomplicated romance with his high school sweetheart dance in his head. His ambitious, luxury-loving wife, a first-generation American, has her own problems.

Set before the 2016 election, this is the story of a midlife crisis of an individual—and perhaps of the nation. Barry Cohen is a New York hedge fund manager, a member of the .01 percent, married to a beautiful younger Indian American woman and scoring the game of life by people's incomes. Yet he has another side, the memories of a pool cleaner's son who dreamed of becoming a novelist (his hedge fund is called This Side of Capital) and Layla, the lost love he hasn't seen since college. When the SEC begins investigating, his marriage falters, and the challenges of raising an autistic son become overwhelming, Barry takes off, getting on a Greyhound for a trip to El Paso to find his Layla. Throwing his credit cards away, the wealthy Barry finds himself near penniless, rubbing shoulders with the 99 percent and learning something about himself along the way. VERDICT This is a road trip through a heartland both national and personal with one man's dysfunction echoing his country's as Barry attempts to escape the present only to have the present confront him in the end. Shteyngart's latest (after Super Sad True Love Story) is a hilarious, melancholic, and rapier-sharp tale for our times. [See Prepub Alert, 3/12/18.]—Lawrence Rungren, Andover, MA