Little Failure? Or Big Success?

Gary Shteyngart's memoir Little Failure is a humorous recollection of his life as a Russian Jewish immigrant coming to America. He's captivated audiences based on his ability to ridicule himself and retell even the most embarrassing moments of his life. He doesn't hide anything about himself to the reader and thats what I loved about it.

His struggle of assimilation in a foreign country and eventual actualization of success is a story any immigrant can relate to. The realness of his struggle to fit in and make something of himself makes his story easy to identify with and this is the root of his success.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't agree with Shteyngart's label; failure. 

From a young age, his mother labels him "Failurchka"  because he didn't get the grades in high school to land him a seat in an Ivy League school. Shteyngart carries this label with him for the rest of his life and his entire memoir revolves around himself identifying as a failure. Shteyngart manages to pave his own road that his parents could not have imagined for an immigrant boy; he becomes an accomplished writer. He spends his life walking against the slope of immigrants "going into law, medicine, or maybe that strange new category known only as ‘computer.’ ” I consider this achievement to be a great success. In spite of his parents wanted realized for him, he realized his own dreams. He walked against the grain, he did not give into social conventions and did what he wanted to devote his life to; writing.