I’ve been reading Gary Shteyngart‘s journalism for quite some time. This has not, strangely, translated into me reading much of his fiction… Weird. In 2024, The Atlantic published the author’s amusing feature “Crying Myself to Sleep on the icon of the Seas”, which went a little bit viral — it’s a well-written, amusing piece. It looks like this article, and others, will be collected in Shteyngart’s first essay collection, The Sensualist, which is due to be published by Random House in November. Here’s the synopsis:
In The Sensualist, Gary chases capybaras, the world’s largest (and cutest) rodent. He joins 7500 fellow passengers on earth’s biggest cruise ship. He schleps around New York City in search of the best martini. He visits wool merchants and tailors in pursuit of the perfect blue suit. He travels to Naples, Bombay, Havana, and Beijing. He sits on his porch in upstate New York. He puts down his phone and looks up at the stars.
To Gary, a sensualist believes the details of one’s life are always worth savoring and happiness can be found from looking around. A sensualist isn’t a glutton or an aesthete (and certainly not a snob), but someone who embraces the sublime—and the absurd. In The Sensualist Gary takes us across town and across the world, showing us how to appreciate the joys of life, no matter what.
Gary Shteyngart’s The Sensualist is due to be published by Random House in North America and in the UK, on November 10th.
Civilian Reader 