02/06/2023
No good deed goes unpunished in this madcap dark comedy from Lichtman (Such Good Work), set in 2018 Ukraine. John Turner, a down and out freelance writer in Portland, Ore., accepts an offer for a job in Lutsk, Ukraine. There, he’s expected to train a staff of five at a call center for an American rental agency on how to “sound natural.” He’s woefully unprepared; he neither speaks nor understands Ukrainian and has no grasp on the culture. He tries to befriend a developer named Serhii but loses his cool after Serhii tricks him into asking a cleaner for sex. He also flirts with one of his employees, Natalia, who is married. When he learns Natalia’s husband, Anatoly, gave her a black eye, he embarks on a harebrained scheme to protect her, thinking he can bribe Anatoly with cash. While already on shaky ground and still struggling to master basic Ukrainian phrases, John has an ill-advised encounter with Anatoly that turns on a dangerous misunderstanding. Lichtman delivers a perfect send-up of the American abroad: John isn’t just naive, he’s imperious and condescending (on one of his employees: “The way he said the word ‘misconceptions’ sounded like he was trying it out for the first time. I wanted to give him a hug”). This is devilish and energizing. (Apr.)Correction: The character Serhii's name was misspelled in an earlier version of this review.
★ 03/31/2023
Lichtman's sophomore novel (after Such Good Work) follows the suddenly aimless John, who impulsively moves from the United States to Ukraine after an offer comes through from an old college buddy. His job is to manage a small call center for his friend's thriving homestay start-up, and his primary directive is to train the customer-service representatives in the nuances of U.S. small talk. From this premise, Lichtman crafts a slyly cerebral work that initially has the makings of a lighthearted workplace farce but then moves into darker comedy and headier observation. John is hyperconscious of the worst perceptions of U.S. citizens living abroad and endeavors to avoid such clichés, but as cultural nuances are further abstracted and the 2022 Russian war in Ukraine approaches, the blurriness of ethics and relationships only builds. Through it all, Licthman returns to the novel's locus: an exploration of language, how our limits of expression—linguistically and emotionally—likewise limit our ability to fully know others, and the tragic ways we constantly talk past each other. As he balances these myriad thematic threads with a complete mastery of tone, Lichtman never gives into messages of either misery or contentment, instead asserting their ever-presence in our lives and particular symbiosis. VERDICT A playful, incisive, and deeply human novel of cultural and personal disconnect that should appeal to fans of Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station and Lauren Oyler's Fake Accounts.—Luke Gorham
★ 2023-01-12
A stylish and often surprising American-expatriate novel for the not-quite–post-colonial age—and a portrait of Ukraine in the run-up to Russia's 2022 assault.
It's 2018. John Turner, just turned 30, has suffered both a romantic breakup and the death of his father. A college friend calls with a ridiculous-sounding opportunity: Might he move to western Ukraine to train call-center reps in idiomatic American English? Despite having no contacts and no experience with either the Ukrainian or the Russian languages, John takes the plunge. He foresees a chance to rebuild himself, part monastic retreat, part grand adventure. It turns out that the reps most need a crash course in chipper American small talk, which they find baffling, and the effort to provide this brings John closer to them; despite his determination not to succumb to morally dubious cliché, he struggles against a crush on one, Natalia, and befriends another, with whom he trains in boxing. John’s effort also provides Lichtman an opportunity to reflect on cultural differences, on the twilight of the so-called American Age... and on the damage peculiar to the representative of empire who is sheepish, guilty, exquisitely sensitive, and determined to make everyone agree that he has no imperial intent. Perhaps most impressive is Lichtman's high-wire act of tone. In the book's first half, John is largely an earnest goof, well meaning and bewildered. But when a comic figure like that is set down in a country inured to tragedy—and as the undeclared Russian war worsens and a comic actor is elected to the Ukrainian presidency—it becomes clear that John's misunderstandings and awkwardnesses, his accidents of language (when he panics, he tends to blurt out a phrase that means "have sex with me"), can't stay mere fish-out-of-water humor. In places like Ukraine, comedy is backed with consequence. John keeps overhearing neighbors fighting—a suffering woman, her brutal spouse—and can't decide what to do. Call the police? Intervene himself? Can domestic violence be a cultural difference?
A sometimes rollicking, sometimes tragedy-tinged novel about a not-so-innocent abroad.
No good deed goes unpunished in this madcap dark comedy... Lichtman delivers a perfect send-up of the American abroad... This is devlish and energizing."
—Publisher's Weekly
"A stylish and often surprising American-expatriate novel for the not-quite-post-colonial age—and a portrait of Ukraine in the run-up to Russia's 2022 assault... Perhaps most impressive is Lichtman's high-wire act of tone... A sometimes rollicking, sometimes tragedy-tinged novel about a not-so-innocent abroad."
—Kirkus (Starred Review)
"A book full of unexpected laughter, strangeness and delight, plus one of the most demented workplace tragicomedies ever written."
—Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends
"In his masterful second novel, Johannes Lichtman digs down into the wonders and banal horrors of what it means to be 'free'—as a well-meaning, semi-clueless American man abroad, or as a Ukrainian woman trapped in a cycle of domestic abuse. Although written before the current Russian invasion, every situation feels freighted with the country's past and future. Slim and subtle and sharply observed, this novel gripped me from its opening pages to its chilling denouement.
—Laura Sims, author of Looker
"Lichtman’s delightful, gripping novel offers screwball banter, a send-up of American start-up culture, an expat romance with a dark Hitchockian left turn, a hero who, despite chronically second-guessing himself, has a knack for saying the wrong thing, and the perception-enhancing defamiliarization that only happens when an innocent with fine antennae ventures abroad—in this case, to Ukraine, a country whose tensions are deftly shown by Lichtman to be crucial to our political moment."
—Caleb Crain, author of Overthrow
"Johannes Lichtman's great subject is morally compromised idealism, and he brings to it an electric intelligence and an allergy to ready-made judgments. Calling Ukraine is the funniest tragedy I've ever read, or maybe the saddest comedy; it's also a merciless dissection of American moral vanity. Lichtman's brilliance lies in showing how all our categories—for books, for people—are inadequate. He's one of the most exciting novelists working today."
—Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness and What Belongs to You
PRAISE FOR SUCH GOOD WORK
“Lichtman [is] a remarkable thinker and social satirist...Such Good Work introduces a writer who is willing to openly contradict himself, to stand corrected, to honor both men and women, to ask sincere questions and let them ring unanswered.” —THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Lichtman's low-key treatment of two highly charged subjects is refreshing.”—KIRKUS REVIEWS
“[An] excellent and timely debut. Lichtman expertly infuses his multicontinental narrative with humor and humanity...[Jonas'] heartfelt actions stick with the reader in this winning novel.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“Such Good Work is...wary of affectation or grandstanding; it works small, as if from a sense of modesty, a reluctance to presume; it cuts sincerity with the driest of humor.”—THE NEW YORKER
Dan Bittner lets humor slip subtly into his narration as he describes the problems at the call center where Turner, an American, is working in Ukraine as elections bring Volodymyr Zelensky into office. Bittner's mimicry re-creates the center's calls believably and gives Turner a calm voice as he handles the callers' problems. Bittner's voice drops in volume as Turner first shares his attraction for his colleague Natalia. As the story progresses, Bittner illuminates the hidden meanings in their exchanges. Listeners learn about Natalia's personal situation along with Turner, which creates a foreboding mood. Bittner is also adept at switching point of view as the story sheds light on the characters' actions and creates surprising plot twists. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Dan Bittner lets humor slip subtly into his narration as he describes the problems at the call center where Turner, an American, is working in Ukraine as elections bring Volodymyr Zelensky into office. Bittner's mimicry re-creates the center's calls believably and gives Turner a calm voice as he handles the callers' problems. Bittner's voice drops in volume as Turner first shares his attraction for his colleague Natalia. As the story progresses, Bittner illuminates the hidden meanings in their exchanges. Listeners learn about Natalia's personal situation along with Turner, which creates a foreboding mood. Bittner is also adept at switching point of view as the story sheds light on the characters' actions and creates surprising plot twists. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
