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1-Page Summary of True Love
Overall Summary
Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story is a futuristic tale of love, mortality, family and technology. It follows the fall of America as its citizens are distracted by their cell phones. The main character Lenny Abramov is an old-school Russian Jew who falls in love with Eunice Park, a Korean-American woman who loves to text him all day long.
Lenny is in love with Eunice, who he met on his last night of a trip to Italy. When he comes back to America, Lenny notices that the country’s decline has picked up rapidly in his absence. He continues to think about Eunice and writes six goals for himself: working hard for Joshie, whom Lenny loves; making Joshie protect him; loving Eunice; taking care of friends; being nice to parents; and celebrating what he has. The text goes through each goal as it helps or hinders Lenny’s progress towards them.
People are obsessed with youth, sex, and data. Lenny loves books but everyone else thinks they smell. People live through their äppärät (a device that allows them to stream information), buy things, and rate one another on features like “fuckability.” Eunice is the youth people long for because of her app called GlobalTeens (“she embodies these self-centered values”). She appeals not only to Lenny but also his boss who is a founder of Staatling-Wapachung company where he works.
As the society around them falls apart, Low Net Worth Individuals targeted by an authoritarian regime revolt. The elderly in Lenny’s building are also discriminated against and mistreated. Eunice becomes involved with their cause, as well as her sister’s and father’s causes. She realizes that she has to connect with her family and cultural heritage in order to make a difference in the world.
In the end, Lenny learns to accept what others are afraid of. America is a story about death and every individual has to face it. Even Joshie, who steals his girl and kills his friend, realizes that he can’t stay young forever. With humor and tenderness, Lenny uses the diary of his experiences with Eunice to make books relevant again by questioning technology’s role in society.
Chapter 4: “The Only Man for Me: From the GlobalTeens Account of Eunice Park”
The next chapter talks about Eunice Park’s GlobalTeens account. She is talking to her friend Grillbitch and telling her about a date that she had with Ben. The date went well until they started talking about their feelings, and he got upset after hearing the truth from Eunice. He turned off his äppärät so that he wouldn’t have to listen, but it also helped him hide his true feelings as well. They continued having sex even though it wasn’t what either of them wanted because they didn’t want to be alone when they were in bed together, but then afterwards Eunice began feeling guilty for sleeping with someone whom she did not love or respect very much at all.
Afterwards, Ben tried comforting her by saying “I’m here”, which only made things worse because now she felt like an intruder on his life instead of a participant in his world. This was followed by more bad news: first the fact that there was no toilet paper left at home—a detail that makes both girls laugh—and second, some other bad news from back home: apparently one of the family members has been caught stealing money from their father’s accounts overseas. Eunice feels no shame over spending this money herself (she says “why should I feel ashamed?” ), but also cannot forget how good her father could be sometimes.
Grillbitch is sad about Eunice’s situation, but reminds her that she can’t control what others do. Grillbitch encourages Eunice to confide in her as a friend because the world can be hard sometimes.
