LITTLE FAILURE

In 1970, President Jimmy Carter traded American grain in exchange for the immigration of Soviet Jews. Enter young Igor Shteyngart and his family. Jonathan Todd Ross had to meet quite a challenge while narrating Shteyngart’s memoir filled with humor, sarcasm, self-deprecation, and personal triumphs—and succeed he does in representing the author with pizzazz. Ross tells how an immigrant family came to America, plunging a little asthmatic boy into a harsh world of unacceptance by his classmates and sometimes himself. Shteyngart had to dig within himself to find a place in the world, despite his mother’s disappointment in his choices—she referred to him lovingly as “Failurchka,” or “little failure.” Todd Ross captures the victory Shteyngart eventually achieved when his literary voice found its rightful place in the universe after an uphill journey through uncertainty and epic self-doubt. B.J.P. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2014]