"Cannelloni arrived. Sausage. The sommelier poured orange wine from Virginia. Then more food, more wine. 'I’ve always loved good stuff, because I grew up with so little'..."

"Mr. Shteyngart said. His 2014 memoir, 'Little Failure,' is a chronicle of ill-fitting clothes and disapproving parents who seem convinced that he is not going to meet their traditional immigrant expectations. His father hits him at home. At school, bullies await."

From "Is Gary Shteyngart One of the Last Novelists to Make Real Money From the Craft?/Mr. Shteyngart was once told he might be. With his sixth novel, 'Vera, or Faith,' out now, he’s spent the last few years spending it well" (NYT).

About that new novel: "In an era when the charge of cultural appropriation still carries professional risk (though perhaps not quite as much risk as five years ago), Mr. Shteyngart’s decision to write in the voice of a tween Korean American girl was a bold one. He said he was partly motivated by his own son’s experience. 'He and his little friends, they mention Trump all the time,' he said. 'And when you’re growing up and you have to think about the Great Leader all the time, that’s always going to stick with you.'"