The Russian Debutante's Handbook was the debut novel by author Gary Shteyngart, published in 2002. It follows the exploits of young Russians both in the Alphabet City neighborhood of Manhattan and the European city of Prava . The novel and its author are parodied in Shteyngart's second novel, Absurdistan, as The Russian Arriviste's Handjob, the work of one "Jerry Shteynfarb" whose writing and character are denigrated on several occasions by the narrator-protagonist of Absurdistan, Misha Vainberg. The novel opens on the 25th birthday of its protagonist, Vladimir Girshkin. Vladimir is a Jewish... immigrant whose family moved from Russia when he was a boy. The novel begins in 1993, in New York City, where Vladimir works for the Emma Lazarus Immigrant Absorption Society . He shares an apartment with his girlfriend, an overweight redhead named Challah who works as a dominatrix. Vladimir is painfully conscious of his parents' disappointment in his inability to make something more of himself, and spends most of his days in a dull routine.
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