Author and Humorist Gary Shteyngart to Visit UC San Diego

Article Content

Gary Shteyngart

Little Failure cover

Gary Shteyngart, critically acclaimed author of “Absurdistan” and “Super Sad True Love Story,” will appear at the University of California, San Diego on May 12 at 7 p.m. in Mandeville Auditorium. He will be joined onstage by Seth Lerer, dean of the UC San Diego Division of Arts and Humanities, for a conversation about Shteyngart's life and work, followed by a book signing of his latest book, “Little Failure: A Memoir.”

“Little Failure” is a poignant, deeply personal memoir drawn from a range of life experiences, including the trauma of spending his youth in Leningrad and then moving with his family to Queens, New York at age 7.

According to The Guardian, “Little Failure” is “irrepressibly funny… witticisms are fired off like bullets, and Shteyngart's wisecracking grin eventually hardens into a smirk of something like despair.”

Along with his immigrant’s experience, which left Shteyngart with a sense of being suspended between two cultures, other formative elements range from his Jewishness to Russian and American history and politics, ambivalent feelings about his family, psychoanalysis and the struggle to find a career suited to his artistic inclinations.

Shtenygart has also written for the New York Times, Slate, Granta and Travel & Leisure, and he recently penned an entertaining account for The New Yorker of his experiences exploring New York City while wearing Google Glass.

Tickets for this event are free, limited to four per person. To reserve tickets, visit the Arts and Humanities website.