Lake Success, Gary Shteyngart

Inspired by his own Greyhound bus trip across the country in 2016, the author tells us a story of a divorcing couple. The hedge-fund manager, Barry Cohen decides to rekindle a relationship with an old flame and takes a Greyhound. Obsessed with watches – he talks to them and compares situations to people to types of watches they should be and should not be wearing. Each person Barry meets has promising aesthetics.. his own version of On The Road by bus across the south and southwest. A brief romance in Mississippi; racist passengers; Barry gliding into people’s lives trying to fundamentally change who they are, but realizing you perhaps cannot change someone’s embedded soul; he was a fraud and his ex knew it; his watches and bags get stolen, left to beg for money, a broken man, self-confessed traveling by bus; his ex having a romance and then her parents moving in with her and their autistic son; Barry ratted out by his own wife and then getting away without prison time.. the elite always seems to get away with X. The two lost souls reconnect to return and again and try anew. Divorce; buying watches to crutch his miserable inner life. Purpose provides you all the energy you will ever need.. and finding solace with his autistic son and the love his son has for his father. Another fine story of what money can not do to heal a soul.