Lara Vapnyar

Still Here is a highly engaging and well-paced novel. Vapnyar weaves together the story of four friends, examining mortality, success, friendship,, loneliness, and our legacies deftly and elegantly. Technology is an important foil in this story, and Vapnyar succeeds at incorporating it in a mostly natural manner--although there are one or two elements that seem out of place (the group text transcript in particular, given that that construct hadn't been used until the last few pages). At show more times heavy-handed in reminding the reader of the themes of mortality and modernity, as a whole the concept was well done. Vapnyar has created intense, intimate, believable, and relatable characters whose choices, strengths, and weaknesses pierce through the mundane aspects of their lives. A feel-good novel about the modern American dream, and how to find our place within it. show less

This book follows the intertwined stories of four friends, all Russian immigrants to America. It is kind of a character study, exploring their relationships to the world through their relationships to technology. It seems to be making a statement about the ability to remain unsatisfied and miss connections, while seemingly living in a world of abundance and interconnectedness. The book skips forward quite a bit, in some cases, between each story - each chapter is a vignette in the life of show more one of the characters, entirely from their point of view. You do come to care about the characters, but I am in varying degrees, sad for all of them at the end of the book. The book also had an ongoing theme of describing various smartphone apps, which either existed in the book's universe, or were planned by the characters. Quite a few of those apps, I'd like to see. If I had to compare it to another book, so that you know what you're getting in to, I'd go for The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barberry, or possibly, Martin Dressler, by Steven Millhauser. It is a book that makes you think about what it was trying to say after you've read it - one you can find more in, the more you think about it. show less

Vadik, Regina, Sergey, and Vica are all long-time friends, Russian immigrants, and the main characters in this novel, by Lara Vapnyar. Almost 40 - as Bob, Regina's husband, a rich American entrepreneur puts it: “That’s a crazy age. … kind of like puberty for adults." - and after 14 years in the United States, they each continue struggling to be both themselves and American. This well-written book is clever in its description of the dilemmas and responses of each individual; the author show more sympathetically but honestly shows how innate cultural differences will remain mysterious even with sincere effort. Observing familiar situations from even a tiny change of angle allows a piquancy which Ms Vapnyar wields with a delicately humorous touch.
The reader starts the novel immediately, as a passenger in a car driven by Sergey as he and his wife Vica travel from their home on Staten Island through New York city to Vadik's new apartment. Regina is also on her way, from her home "in the most beautiful part of Tribeca." The main, outward structure of their relationships is deftly explained in the conversation the reader overhears, along with a central theme of the book: Sergey's "sure-thing winner" of an app which analyzes your social media posts and then, after you die, continue to tweet and post in your voice.
This is a book which rewards the consideration of thoughtful readers. While the plot and gentle comedy carry one onward, it would be a rare person who didn't stop to think about the insights implied by the situations, observations, and reactions of the characters in this fine novel. show less

Thank you to Librarything for the ARC copy. I read this over a few days. Listening to Leonard Cohen while I write this. His music is present throughout the novel, woven through the character's lives. The story is about four friends from Russia who have relocated to New York. Sergey has an idea for an app, Virtual Grave, that uses an algorithm to recreate the voice of a dead loved one through their word choice on twitter and Facebook etc. At first the writing struck me as overly telling, but show more as I continued I became involved with the stories of the characters, their desires, their failures, what they saw for themselves in life, and how they were going to achieve it, and the stylistic approach took a backseat for me. This is a story that revolves around it's characters. Each of the four main characters, Vica, Regina, Sergey, and Vadik are fully formed and realized people. They're real enough that I could imagine there is something about at least of one of them that is bound to resonate with the reader: Vica's frustrations, Regina's loss and attempt to come to terms with it, Sergey's genius and self-doubt, and Vadik's nomadic spirit and inability to settle. They feel like they could be your friends, people you've known, maybe you've shared the same thoughts. show less