<\/p>\n
A narrator can make or break a book. Holden Caulfield from \u201cThe Catcher in the Rye\u201d is too whiny for some; Humbert Humbert of \u201cLolita\u201d fame is almost too effective in his perversion for others. Author Gary Shteyngart clearly takes inspiration from the exacting diaristic narration of authors like Vladimir Nabokov. But what propels his form of narration in his latest novel, \u201cVera, or Faith,\u201d beyond even Humbert\u2019s<\/a> and Hermann\u2019s<\/a>, is the direction Shteyngart brings his lens. That is, down. \u201cVera, Or Faith,\u201d which is told from the perspective of a precocious 10-year-old named Vera, throws itself fully into its limited point of view.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vera is extremely internal. She catalogs the world around her, an outsider who is desperate to feel included by the people in her life. Keeping a \u201cThings I Still Need to Know\u201d diary, she dutifully logs her cerebral father\u2019s political spitfire, itching to be more like him. She seeks friends at school, returning home to her AI-chessboard companion, and she searches for the truth about her birth mother, looking for a bond that transcends that of her mixed family. Vera loves her stepmother and half-brother, but feels isolated by them. This feeling only grows over the course of the novel, as the political ire of the world starts to leak into her home and her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n In school, friendless Vera is assigned a debate partner, and they are given the task to debate a recently proposed amendment. Colloquially called five-three, the amendment would grant Americans whose families have been in the country longer (\u201cfive-threes\u201d) a vote that counts for five-thirds of everyone else\u2019s. Russian-Korean Vera steps up to the task of navigating her family\u2019s academic expectations, staunchly and innocently eager to defend what amounts to her own disenfranchisement.<\/p>\n Vera\u2019s lack of awareness of the weight this class assignment holds, despite the knowing glances of the adults around her, adds to the casual dystopia that Shteyngart creates. It\u2019s eerie to watch Vera defend a bleak future for herself \u2014 one that doesn\u2019t feel too far off from our own reality \u2014 in a completely uncritical manner. Vera is unaware of what she is denigrating, unaware of the complexities that cross even the threshold of her own home. She is focused solely on more age-appropriate concerns: winning a friend in her debate partner and receiving positive attention from her father.<\/p>\n