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Great Books - April

Super Sad True Love Story

by Gary Shteyngart
April 25, 2012

Shteyngart presents another profane and dizzying satire, a dystopic vision of the future. It is also a pointedly old-fashioned May-December love story, complete with references to Chekhov and Tolstoy. Mired in protracted adolescence, middle-aged Lenny Abramov is obsessed with living forever, his books and Eunice Park, a 20-something Korean-American. Narrating in alternate chapters the pair reveal a funhouse-mirror version of contemporary America: terminally indebted to China, controlled by the singular Bipartisan Party (Big Brother as played by a cartoon otter in a cowboy hat), and consumed by the superficial. Shteyngart’s earnestly struggling characters—along with a flurry of running gags—keep the nightmare tour of tomorrow grounded.

Presenter

Jennifer Kelso FarrellJennifer Kelso Farrell is an assistant professor at MSOE. A jack-of-all trades, Jennifer teaches courses in everything from Science Fiction to American Culture to composition. She holds degrees in Creative Writing (BA: University of Montana, 1998), English (MA: Montana State University, 2001), and English Literature (PhD: Louisiana State University, 2007). Her articles have appeared in The Leading Edge and The Journal of Popular Culture. In 2009, she published her first book Lewis Caroll, Linguistic Nonsense, and Cyberpunk: An Alternate Genealogy for Science Fiction.



Menu
Appetizer - Sweet and Spicy Chicken Tenders
Soup/salad - Butternut Squash Porridge
Entrée - Lenny’s Walleye Pike in Tomato Sauce, White Mini Potato with Soy, Bean Sprouts
Dessert - Red Bean Ice Cream with Sugar Cookie



Registration
You may register and pay online for any Great Book session. Look for the red "register online" button on each book's web page. Alternately, you can download this Great Books registration form (Adobe Acrobat Reader software required) to fill out and mail in with your payment. Reserve your space for one or all of the monthly discussions!

All Great Books programs are scheduled on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m. in MSOE's historic Alumni Partnership Center.

To receive a Great Books brochure or for more information about the Great Books Series, contact Cathy Varebrook at (414) 277-4523 or via email.