Dreamed of better lives, the kind which never hate,
Trapped in a state of imaginary grace.
I made a pilgrimage to save this human race,
Never comprehending the race had long gone by.

Part resignation, part vow, Modern English’s hit 1982 track “Melt With You” borrows from the classical poet Virgil a supreme belief that love can conquer all. Despite his pessimism about the fate of humanity, the song’s lover retains his commitment and faith in love. Fast-forward twenty-eight years, subtract a cold war, and you arrive at the publication of Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story, a novel whose sweet, sad, humorous and occasionally contrived narrative unfurls in a not-so-distant, disintegrating America. Its lover desperately tries to believe that “things were going to get better. Someday. For me to fall in love with Eunice Park just as the world fell apart would be a tragedy beyond the Greeks.” Unfortunately, his entropic world does just that, conquering the protagonist’s love and society in one fatal sweep.

Shteyngart has quickly found himself in the good graces of literary circles with his two previous efforts, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook and Absurdistan, which share Super Sad True Love Story’s mix of quirky wit, social commentary, and moments of painful introspection. No doubt many of these accolades are well deserved; Super Sad True Love Story is an impressive, engaging novel. Still, it does not quite possess the subtlety a superb satire demands, for Shteyngart’s heavy-handed political complaints only amount to a distracting, superficial critique of capitalism.