Gary Shteyngart’s new novel, “Vera, or Faith,” imagines an alternate America that mirrors our world as it slips toward an illiberal, ethnonationalist future. Vera is the 10-year-old protagonist of our story. On this fictional landscape, she deftly steers around the craters and pitfalls created by this changed history. This exploration of contemporary societal issues stems from Shteyngart’s personal experiences as a Russian immigrant and his observations of current political trends.
Born in Leningrad, Russia, Shteyngart immigrated to the United States when he was seven years old. His family settled in Reagan-era America, a move that deeply impacted his perspective on the world and approach to writing. He looks back on his childhood with fondness. He is grateful to his parents’ decision to emigrate from the Soviet Union at a formative moment. His mother had been a music teacher in Leningrad. Their migration to the United States ensured his flight from a repressive regime.
In “Vera, or Faith,” Shteyngart links Vera’s search to the personal and artistic dissonance experienced by all Americans today as the very fabric of society shifts beneath us. The story highlights the choices individuals face when confronted with authoritarianism: to resist or conform. Some of what was said struck a personal chord with Shteyngart. He’s written some of the best accounts of the rise of this new fascism and authoritarianism in America and Russia respectively.
Shteyngart’s previous novel, Super Sad True Love Story, provides an equally arresting portrait of America reshaped by social media. It envisions the nation’s alarming descent into fascism. In this fiction, he illustrated a dark vision of the future where personal stories are used as tools to subjugate peoples. He makes parallels between these other historical figures and individuals such as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. He focuses on their common messianic ideals and the tactics they employ to prey on societal weaknesses.
The unique angle of the author’s point of view is informed by his experience growing up there. Growing up near the largest statue of Lenin in Leningrad, he experienced firsthand the stark realities of life under an authoritarian regime. His own background informs his criticism of today’s American political landscape. Yet he thinks that it resembles more and more the climate he fled from three decades ago.
Shteyngart’s insights don’t stop at the American borders. He laments a worldwide retreat from democracy into authoritarianism. He reminds us that one of his favorite countries, Italy, is ruled today by a party rooted in Mussolini’s Fascist regime. Such links make him wonder about the future of democracies across the globe and their vulnerability to the same type of repression.
In “Vera, or Faith,” Shteyngart’s protagonist is a perfect expression of the angst experienced by so many young people right now. As Vera confronts the pressures of a society leaning towards authoritarianism, her story serves as a reflection of broader national anxieties. That’s why Shteyngart feels it is important for younger generations to see these patterns and understand them so that they can make the best possible decisions about their futures.
Racism and exploitation are recurring, prominent themes in Shteyngart’s work. Perhaps most importantly, he insists that these problems affect far beyond any single country. Together, they knit into a much larger global narrative that is impacting millions of communities globally. Shteyngart continues to braid these themes through his novels. This challenges readers to think critically about the world around them and examine how they fit into that world.