She Treads Softly: Vera, or Faith

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Vera, or Faith

Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart
7/8/25; 256 pages
Random House

Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart is a highly recommended family drama set in the future following a precocious ten-year-old girl in a struggling family.

Ten-year-old Vera is academically advanced, but has intense anxiety and is likely on the spectrum. She is making lists, lists of words, things she needs to know, ways to fit in at school, and reasons to keep her family together. The members of the Bradford-Shmulkin family, composed of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and blue blood New England heritage, is falling apart. Daddy is Russian and Jewish and a struggling editor. Vera is Korean, Russian and Jewish. Her mom-mom left her and Daddy is raising her along with Anne-mom, a blue blood New Englander. Their son, Vera's half brother, is Dylan. The family all love each other, but they all seem to be struggling, and Daddy and Anne-mom are fighting all the time.

This short, well-written story is set in an alternate future there are self-driving cars, AI chess sets, a controversial proposed constitutional amendment, and unrest in the country. The focus is on Vera while she is trying to make sense of her life and the narrative is told through her point-of-view. She doesn't always understand what she hearing, but she is a sympathetic character and you will wish the best for her and her family.

Vera, or Faith is a good choice for those who enjoy Shteyngart's writing and a novel that unfolds through the eyes of a child. Thanks to Random Hose for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.