The plot of Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart is a comic writer, his wife, and 8 year old daughter invite their friends to ride out the pandemic at their estate in the Hudson River Valley. Sasha and Masha Senderovsky have a house in the country surrounded by five guest cottages. The hosts are emigrants from Russia. Sasha's parents had a similar housing compound in Russia and he is trying to duplicate what he knew from his childhood in Russia. He invites his friends, lovers and rivals who coexist while wearing masks and staying six feet apart. One of the guests is an actor who plays the lead role in a television adaptation of Sasha's novels. The actor brings a toxic air to the gathering and when he leaves the atmosphere improves. How the group copes with being together, everyday stresses, too much alcohol consumption and group meals is often funny and passionate. I think it would have been a fun way to ride out the pandemic in the Hudson River Valley.
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