Gary Shteyngart is a Russian émigré whose novels include “The Russian Debutante’s Handbook” and “Super Sad True Love Story.” He was on a paperback tour for his latest book, “Little Failure: A Memoir,” when he stopped to read The Times with Insider.
Do you have a paper-reading routine? How did you read today’s paper?
I read Wednesday’s Times in the actual print version (they were selling them down at the Detroit airport) and it was amazing!
Usually I read The Times online, so mostly I just skip around searching for more Lindsay Lohan tidbits and whether or not my apartment has increased in value. But when you read The Times in print, in a linear fashion and without digital distractions, you learn all this incredible stuff you weren’t even looking for!
Like did you know that olfactory bulbs behind our nasal cavities are rich in cells that support nerve function? Well, it’s on Page A6, and those bulbs are helping a paralyzed Polish guy walk again.
Oh, and on A12 it turns out that spires can now be added to buildings in downtown Los Angeles, because they don’t have to have helipads on top anymore because of some outdated fire code.
Oh, and a Tasmanian devil was killed at the Albuquerque zoo on Page A16, presumably for meth-related reasons and by a Walter White-like character. I spent three hours immersed in the print edition, and I feel like I’m connected to the world again. Although I do wonder what Lindsay is up to.
Do you read the paper section by section?
In print, I read every section; digitally, not so much. The digital ads can be pretty powerful, though, when they take over the entire screen.
What do you reach for first?
Whatever the iTelephone tells me to reach for! I’m just the passenger here.
Anything on the front page that surprised you?
Let’s see. Banks are screwing over military personnel, young Tunisians are being driven into the arms of ISIS, people are starting to hate the Centers for Disease Control, and Ben Bradlee’s dead. I think the print edition should come with a cyanide strip attached down by the bar code.
Anything in the paper today that particularly lends to a novelist’s imagination? Or if you were to write a short story or novel based on one story in today’s paper, which might it be?
In the business section, it was great to learn that David S. Cohen, Treasury’s antiterrorist czar, eats a Cobb salad in its entirety.
“I tried not to eat the egg,” he says, “but I couldn’t resist.”
I could sort of see putting that in a novel: A bead of sweat, cold as a Goldman second-year analyst’s heart, had broken out between David S. Cohen’s fearsome brows. He moved aside the latest report on ISIS. “Sir! Mr. Cohen!” His new assistant, just 23 years out of Georgetown, was trying to get his attention. “Your Cobb salad, I took out the egg.” Cohen sighed and loosened his gorgeous red tie. “No, Wendi,” he said. “Not today. Today we eat the egg.” A shudder crept through the room. It was going to be a long night at the bat cave.
Speaking of eggs: the Dining Section. What do you like best about it?
I’m especially happy to see The Times tackle restaurants in my marginalized borough, Manhattan. Anything Pete Wells writes, I read like the almighty truth. I like his hot-and-cold review of the latest sea-urchiny place in the Village in today’s issue. Oh, and I got to get over to Elmhurst for that Thai place reviewed in Hungry City. My kingdom for a phat phak bung mu krop.
Arts. What surprised you in the section.
I can’t believe that Dwight Garner and I used the same technique to beat a drug test. (He wrote a review about the High Times book.) I love that guy! I wonder if he still keeps that detox tea up in his office. I could use some right about now.