Still Here by Lara Vapnyar follows the lives of four Russian immigrants who move to New York City. Sergey and Vadik have been friends for years. The four of them remain friends, even though Sergey steals Vadik ‘s girlfriend, Vica, and dumps his current girlfriend, Regina. Their relationship situation is sort of like Fleetwood Mac when they were recording Rumours.
Sergey and Vica get married and struggle with money and sex like most people. Regina sleeps and watches television all day instead of dealing with her mother’s death. Vadik always has a new girlfriend and a new apartment. He’s always looking for the woman that he met on his first day in America because he thinks she is “the one.”
After Sergey’s father dies, he comes up with an idea for an app in which the deceased could retain their online presence so that their loved ones could visit. Sergey believes that his app, Virtual Grave, could be the answer to their financial problems.
I procrastinated for a few months before finally reading Still Here. I was worried that the philosophical discussions about life and death would be over my head. There was nothing to worry about – the language was not a barrier at all.
The characters were all depicted very well. I enjoyed reading about what was going on in their lives. I would give this book 4.5 stars out of five.
- I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for doing a review.
