Gary Shteyngart Talks to NYC’s Virtual Book Club Host Alison Stewart on Get Lit with All of It

By
Emily Johnson
February 23, 2022

“My first novels, like any young person’s novels, are all about the excitement of growing up, but now I’m all into regret,” Gary Shteyngart reflected, kissing his fingers, “I love regret, I have so many regrets.”

Shteyngart’s recent appearance on WNYC’s Get Lit with All Of It on January 31, 2022, hosted by Alison Stewart, was a refreshingly reader-oriented stop on the tour of events for his latest novel, Our Country Friends.

Get Lit bills itself as a ‘virtual book club event’—the show engages listeners on social media, generating conversation and feedback which Stewart incorporates into her interviews with authors. For a novel steeped in friendship, comedy, and larger-than-life characters, it was the perfect venue.

Our Country Friends, one of last fall’s buzziest fiction releases, garnering glowing reviews from The New York TimesThe New York Review of BooksThe Washington Post and others, follows a group of friends who weather an unnamed pandemic together in a country house for six months. They are privileged, frustrated, alienated, horny, and deliciously, poignantly full of regret. 

Stewart’s discussion with Shteyngart, true to book club style, mostly eschewed talk of themes and delved right into aspects of the novel brought up by curious readers. The familiarity and camaraderie was enlivening.

“We asked our listeners who their favorite character was,” Steward explained, “Some said Vinod, some said Ed, but most everybody said Nat.”

“Wowwwww,” Shteyngart enthused, “That’s great. Because somebody else did a survey, and Senderovsky came out [as the favorite] which made me feel good—I’m very Senderovskyish. But Nat…beautiful, that’s great.”

Nat is the 8-year-old daughter of Sasha and Masha, the couple whose country house shelters the group throughout the novel. She is a precocious, K-Pop-obsessed oddball who Shteyngart says was modeled in part on his own 8-year-old son. “He says things that often blow my mind.”

Shteyngart observed that though Nat’s generation gives him hope, the middle-schoolers of today will have a lot going against them as they get older—socially, politically, environmentally, and economically. “I wanted to be really nice to Nat, because I think she’s got enough problems.”

“I need to ask about the app,” Stewart said, referring to Tröö Emotions, the app that makes people fall in love, invented by one of the characters in Our Country Friends.

Part of Shteyngart’s inspiration came from friends of his who immediately turn to social media to investigate the person they’re interested in. “I was thinking of creating a love potion the way, say, Puck works in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Today’s Puck would be an algorithm.”

“Well this sort of brings us to the sex scene,” Stewart said, asking what was up with two characters who have an unexpectedly erotic bathing encounter.

Shteyngart observed that contemporary fiction seems shyer about describing sex. He wanted to revive a kind of “modern retelling of sex,” not quite Rothian, but present, sensual and distinctive. Earlier in the show, Shteyngart called it “probably the strangest sex scene I’ve ever written. And I’ve written some pretty strange sex scenes.”

A significant portion of the show was devoted to listener questions from YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. This often lead to unexpected observations, exploring facets of the book which haven’t received a lot of attention elsewhere—exactly the kind of delightfully close reading you get from a community of passionate bookworms.

Shteyngart black and white headshot
blue and green book cover - Shteyngart

Readers asked questions about the symbolism of dead branches, about the “ominous upstate locals,” and why the pandemic isn’t named in the book—there were even comments about the country house decor:

Cynthia, a participant and reader, sent in the question: "I love the decor for each of the five cottages and who was selected to sleep there, how did you land on those descriptions?”

“I wanted Senderovsky to kind of play matchmaker between his guests and the decor. The most fun I had was in Dee’s room which is furnished with all these old typewriters—oh poor Senderovsky—and these framed Joan Didion posters,” Shteyngart said, laughing. 

“I think that was one of the most fun things to write, and I’m glad, Cynthia, thank you for reminding me of that, because nobody’s ever asked about that.”

At one point Stewart looked up from her notes like she’d just had a delightful realization. “This just popped into my head, and it may be completely ridiculous, but I feel like you would appreciate ridiculous,” she said. “Did you watch Gilligan’s Island?” 

“Oh yes, are you kidding?” Shteyngart said, “In fact it was my favorite show when I was growing up—oh my god, we’re doing some good psychoanalysis here.” 

Like Our Country Friends, TV classic Gilligan’s Island also revolved around wildly different archetypes thrown together under strange circumstances. Shteyngart admitted he could see the similarities. “Gilligan’s Country Friends,” he laughed, “Wow, thank you Alison, you’ve really hit on something here.”

Our Country Friends is certainly a novel that both inspires and thrives on such enthusiastic attention, such uninhibited, heartfelt response. It yields more of its thoughtful details to each new pair of eyes.

Check out the video of this Get Lit episode below, or find the audio version here.