Little Failure

A Memoir

By: Gary Shteyngart

Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross

After three acclaimed novels - The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Absurdistan, and Super Sad True Love Story - Gary Shteyngart turns to memoir in a candid, witty, deeply poignant account of his life so far.

Shteyngart shares his American immigrant experience, moving back and forth through time and memory with self-deprecating humor, moving insights, and literary bravado. The result is a resonant story of family and belonging that feels epic and intimate and distinctly his own. Provocative, hilarious, and inventive, Little Failure reveals a deeper vein of emotion in Gary Shteyngart' s prose. It is a memoir of an immigrant family coming to America, as told by a lifelong misfit who forged from his imagination an essential literary voice and, against all odds, a place in the world.

©2014 Gary Shteyngart (P)2014 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Jonathan Todd Ross had to meet quite a challenge while narrating Shteyngart's memoir filled with humor, sarcasm, self-deprecation, and personal triumphs - and succeed he does in representing the author with pizzazz." ( AudioFile)

I loved it!

What made the experience of listening to Little Failure the most enjoyable?

The narrator has a calm, clear voice. He is able to shift from an English accent to Russian accent to Russian to Hebrew in a smooth and natural way. He really captured the emotion in the words he read.

What did you like best about this story?

The author's ability to laugh at himself and his keen satire on a number of topics.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes

Witty and funny

You have to be from eastern Europe to fully enjoy this and empathize with his experience.

Great story, wonderful narration!

The narration complements the text wonderfully. I am not sure the author could have done better himself. The narrator has different voices for the author as adult, as child, for his father etc. It is a wonderful performance and you will not want to stop listening. Absolutely worth it. I can see myself listening to this at another time, and perhaps even reading Shteyngart's books.

Good memoir... Good story...

Great performance.. Could do without the effort for fake Russian accents. Would have been better straight up English, without the poor attempts at foreign accents. They all sound like bad variations of Dracula.

got more disappointing

I am a big Shteyngart fan and was fun in the early going but got much less so as he got into adolescence - most adolescents aren't that interesting and neither is he. Too bad. Go back to novels.