Waiting for the Electricity

by Christina Nichol

Overview

“This book is a triumphant, sustained, comic performance. I can’t recall a contemporary American novel anywhere near as funny.” —Norman Rush
A Wall Street Journal Best Fiction Book of 2014!
An exciting and hilarious debut novel: a remarkable picaresque set in post-Soviet Georgia—land of corruption, love, and power shortages
In the republic of Georgia, the Communists are long gone, replaced by . . . well, by what? Something much more confusing. There are no jobs in the cities. And when there are jobs, employees aren’t compensated. And when they are compensated, it’s because the jobsare . . . not strictly scrupulous. In the village, life goes on much as it always did, but these days, the homemade farmers cheese is giving way to the oil pipeline. And as for romance in this strange, confounding modern age . . . the less said, the better.
But there’s one man in Georgia who remains unseduced by corruption, unfazed by nostalgia, and unable to abandon chivalry, no matter how antiquated a notion it may be.This man is Slims Achmed Makashvili, a humble maritime lawyer and the hero of this brilliant novel.
When Slims discovers an application for an American small business internship program sponsored by Hillary Clinton, he knows that he has found his calling. In his letters to Senator Clinton, Slims dreams of bringing efficiency, opportunity, and the American dream to his homeland, even as his friends and relatives embrace decadence, lethargy, and a staggering array of unsavory business practices. But when he finally gets to America—specifically to utopian San Francisco, where the streets are paved with quinoa—Slims sees what reform and progress look like up close. And suddenly, his loud, bickering family and his anguished, joyful country no longer seem so grim.
A gleeful picaresque, a visionary satire, and a work of extraordinary empathy and imagination, Waiting for the Electricity is a marvelously imaginative debut novel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781468310962
Publisher:	The Overlook Press
Publication date:	07/14/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Christina Nichol is a 2012 recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. Nichol grew up in the Bay Area, studied at the University of Oregon, and received her MFA from the University of Florida. She has traveled widely, worked for nonprofit film companies, and taught English in India, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan,Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and, of course, Georgia. Her work has been published inHarper's,Guernica and Lucky Peach. Waiting for the Electricity is her first book.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

A Wall Street Journal Best Fiction Book of 2014!

"Like Kingsley Amis with a social conscience, Christina Nichol combines an ear for the absurdities of globalized English with an acute awareness of the everyday sufferings and indignities of daily life in post-Soviet Georgia. The result is a pitch-perfect dark comedy that tracks the myriad miscommunications among ‘global partners’ and next-door neighbors and combines them into one of the most powerful novels yet written on the effects of globalization.” —Marco Roth, author of The Scientists

  “This book is a triumphant, sustained, comic performance. I can’t recall a contemporary American novel anywhere near as funny. Be aware that Waiting for Electricity is defiantly un-PC, and also that it manages to provide between the lines as acute and mordant a reading of post-Communist Georgia as one could conceive. The narrator’s letters to Hillary Clinton are more brilliantly hapless than any of Herzog’s to his famous addressees. I got a kind of joy from experiencing Christina Nichol’s transformation of an extreme reality into further documentation of the human comedy. I don’t think I’ve ever before used the word “joy” in quite this way.” —Norman Rush, author of Subtle Bodies

“A wise, funny debut novel that finds endless entertainment in cultural differences and clashing personality types . . . Nichol writes with sharp, knowing exactitude of both Georgia (where she once taught English) and her native Bay Area, and though Makashvili is a figure of jape and jest, he’s by no means a caricature. Indeed, he’s one of the most fully realized characters in recent memory, and readers will take much pleasure in going along on his adventures—and misadventures.” —Kirkus Reviews

"This indeventive debut novel from Nichol, who has taught English in the Republic of Georgia, where the book is set, provides a satirical but good-natured look at the clash between American and Georgian attitudes . . . Tongue-in-cheek humor and Slims's deadpan narration of his improbable tale add considerable appeal to this promising first novel." —Publishers Weekly

"Nichol’s clever debut is rich in cultural commentary . . . Nichol’s well-drawn characters and satirical flourishes make Slims’ journey and interactions both enjoyable and thoughtful." —Booklist

"Waiting for the Electricity is a wildly original and ambitious debut, a novel that tackles cultural clashes with satirical hilarity. I haven't read a first novel this promising since The Confederacy of Dunces." —Jill Ciment, author of Heroic Measures 
 
"Waiting for the Electricity is not just a wise, funny, moving novel but a feat of extraordinary literary ventriloquism. In these pages, the American writer Christina Nichol becomes the Georgian "Slims" Achmed. Her Georgia is his Georgia. More remarkably, his America is her America. A fine debut, and a welcome antidote to the provincialism of so much recent American fiction."—David Leavitt, author of The Two Hotel Francforts

"Endearing and dryly hilarious." —The Wall Street Journal

Editorial Reviews

Endearing and dryly hilarious.

Wall Street Journal

Seamlessly inventive and enchanting.

The Rumpus

Richly, often blissfully comic…I would happily read as much of [the novel] as Nichol could have been persuaded to write.

Literary Review

Nichol has written a laugh-out-loud funny picaresque novel about post-Soviet Georgia. Sound unlikely? Just dive in.

Reader's Digest

Nichol brings the curiosity and critical eye of the seasoned traveler to her debut, keenly observing both her Georgian protagonists and the Americans they idealize. In her capable hands,Waiting for the
Electricitydoes what all armchair travel literature should aspire to do: it immerses you completely in the consciousness of another culture and makes you think, first about people very different from you, and then about yourself. Nichol’s sense of humor … is what makesWaiting for the
Electricityso much fun to read. Drawing us further in with each successive chuckle (and quite a few laugh-out-loud moments), Nichol lays out a nuanced portrait of a country many of us will never visit.

KQED

Truly inventive in its ability to weave a politically savvy tale of capitalism and corruption with a hysterical and uplifting character perspectiveWaiting for the Electricityis one of the most exciting debut novels in years.”

Booksmith Review

Christina Nichol’s debut novel takes us on a humorous ride toward the possibility of the American dream. The hero, Slims
Achmed, comes from the country of Georgia to San Francisco, the land of opportunity. While enduring culture shock, Achmed sees a San Francisco he wasn’t quite expecting. The setting is perfect for the Sebastopol author’s wry comedy as well as social commentary on America.

SFGate

Not since the title character of Saul Bellow's epistolary novelHerzog(1964) have I encountered one as outlandish as Slims, a working-class Georgian who writes to Hillary Clinton seeking America's help in stabilizing his country. While written in a satirical style, Waitingis heart-achingly poignant.”

Chico News and Review

The writing was good, funny, and the main characters were all well developed. Slims was a very likeable character as was his best friend and literary foil, Malkhazi. The personalities are all very distinct from one another while still highlighting an interesting look into Georgian culture and mythology

San Francisco Book Review

Hilarious...An assured debut.

The Daily Mail

[Waiting for the Electricity] packs a huge satirical punch, creating a fast romp for those of us who like to concentrate on a good story with more beneath for those of us who like to be sent away with thoughts on which to ruminate…. From beginning to end this is a spell binding story.”

The Bookbag

Utterly Winning.

Stevereads

A Wall Street Journal Best Fiction Book of 2014!

"Like Kingsley Amis with a social conscience, Christina Nichol combines an ear for the absurdities of globalized English with an acute awareness of the everyday sufferings and indignities of daily life in post-Soviet Georgia. The result is a pitch-perfect dark comedy that tracks the myriad miscommunications among ‘global partners’ and next-door neighbors and combines them into one of the most powerful novels yet written on the effects of globalization.” —Marco Roth, author of The Scientists

“This book is a triumphant, sustained, comic performance. I can’t recall a contemporary American novel anywhere near as funny. Be aware that Waiting for Electricity is defiantly un-PC, and also that it manages to provide between the lines as acute and mordant a reading of post-Communist Georgia as one could conceive. The narrator’s letters to Hillary Clinton are more brilliantly hapless than any of Herzog’s to his famous addressees. I got a kind of joy from experiencing Christina Nichol’s transformation of an extreme reality into further documentation of the human comedy. I don’t think I’ve ever before used the word “joy” in quite this way.” —Norman Rush, author of Subtle Bodies

“A wise, funny debut novel that finds endless entertainment in cultural differences and clashing personality types . . . Nichol writes with sharp, knowing exactitude of both Georgia (where she once taught English) and her native Bay Area, and though Makashvili is a figure of jape and jest, he’s by no means a caricature. Indeed, he’s one of the most fully realized characters in recent memory, and readers will take much pleasure in going along on his adventures—and misadventures.” —Kirkus Reviews

"This indeventive debut novel from Nichol, who has taught English in the Republic of Georgia, where the book is set, provides a satirical but good-natured look at the clash between American and Georgian attitudes . . . Tongue-in-cheek humor and Slims's deadpan narration of his improbable tale add considerable appeal to this promising first novel." —Publishers Weekly

"Nichol’s clever debut is rich in cultural commentary . . . Nichol’s well-drawn characters and satirical flourishes make Slims’ journey and interactions both enjoyable and thoughtful." —Booklist

"Waiting for the Electricity is a wildly original and ambitious debut, a novel that tackles cultural clashes with satirical hilarity. I haven't read a first novel this promising since The Confederacy of Dunces." —Jill Ciment, author of Heroic Measures 
 
"Waiting for the Electricity is not just a wise, funny, moving novel but a feat of extraordinary literary ventriloquism. In these pages, the American writer Christina Nichol becomes the Georgian "Slims" Achmed. Her Georgia is his Georgia. More remarkably, his America is her America. A fine debut, and a welcome antidote to the provincialism of so much recent American fiction."—David Leavitt, author of The Two Hotel Francforts

"Endearing and dryly hilarious." —The Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

Nichol’s clever debut is rich in cultural commentary . . . Nichol’s well-drawn characters and satirical flourishes make Slims’ journey and interactions both enjoyable and thoughtful.

Booklist

Endearing and dryly hilarious.

The Wall Street Journal

Waiting for the Electricity is not just a wise, funny, moving novel but a feat of extraordinary literary ventriloquism. In these pages, the American writer Christina Nichol becomes the Georgian Slims Achmed. Her Georgia is his Georgia. More remarkably, his America is her America. A fine debut, and a welcome antidote to the provincialism of so much recent American fiction.”

David Leavitt

This book is a triumphant, sustained, comic performance. I can’t recall a contemporary American novel anywhere near as funny. Be aware that Waiting for Electricity is defiantly un-PC, and also that it manages to provide between the lines as acute and mordant a reading of post-Communist Georgia as one could conceive. The narrator’s letters to Hillary Clinton are more brilliantly hapless than any of Herzog’s to his famous addressees. I got a kind of joy from experiencing Christina Nichol’s transformation of an extreme reality into further documentation of the human comedy. I don’t think I’ve ever before used the word joy in quite this way.”

Norman Rush

Waiting for the Electricity is a wildly original and ambitious debut, a novel that tackles cultural clashes with satirical hilarity. I haven't read a first novel this promising since The Confederacy of Dunces.”

Jill Ciment

LikeKingsley Amis with a social conscience, Christina Nichol combines an ear for the absurdities of globalized English with an acute awareness of the everyday sufferings and indignities of daily life in post-Soviet Georgia. The result isa pitch-perfect dark comedythat tracks the myriad miscommunications among ‘global partners’ and next-door neighbors and combines them intoone of the most powerful novels yet written on the effects of globalization.
”

Marco Roth

03/10/2014
This inventive debut from Nichol, who has taught English in the Republic of Georgia, where the book is set, provides a satirical but good-natured look at the clash between American and Georgian attitudes. Slims Achmed Makashvili, a self-effacing attorney working in the Georgian Maritime Ministry of Law, lives in Batumi, a small town on the Black Sea. Bemoaning the deplorable condition of post-Soviet Georgia, where corruption is rife and electricity scarce, Slims enters a business-proposal-writing contest sponsored by Hillary Clinton to teach citizens of former U.S.S.R. satellite states about free-market capitalism. He submits his application with help from his sister, Juliet, who teaches English at a local university, and is surprised to be informed afterward by the American embassy that he has won entry to a six-week internship in San Francisco, which involves attending an economic conference. While staying with his American host, small business owner Merrick, Slims is impressed by the law and order he observes, as well as by the abundance of electricity. He comes up with a dubious business plan for importing Georgian sheep to the U.S. before embarking on a madcap road trip that brings his stay to an ignominious end. Tongue-in-cheek humor and Slims’s deadpan narration of his improbable tale add considerable appeal to this promising first novel. Agent: Irene Skolnick, Skolnick Literary. (June)

Publishers Weekly

★ 2014-05-22
A wise, funny debut novel that finds endless entertainment in cultural differences and clashing personality types. Part Candide, part Zorba, Slims Achmed Makashvili is a maritime lawyer in the mountainous nation of Georgia, where, as Nichol’s picaresque yarn opens, it is the last day of summer, when “everyone was trying to blacken their bodies before the weather changed.” Makashvili, though, has other things than beachgoing and the impending winter on his mind. Tired of living in a country where electrical power can’t be taken for granted, but still proud of living in a town that “looks like chipped paint,” he’s gotten wind of a U.S. State Department grant program designed to teach third-world types about the virtues of capitalism. He sends off a carefully written letter to Hillary Clinton, exulting, “As You can see, Batumi offers You and Your country great business opportunity!” In return, he wins a slot in an internship program in San Francisco, where he puts his avid mind to work concocting wild schemes to enliven his country’s livestock industry; writing to excuse himself from work one day, for instance, he avers that he’s never sick at home because “we always drink the milk of the sheep,” though, in an aside to readers, he allows that it was really the milk of the goat: “But, as I learned, it is okay to lie in a commercial.” Makashvili is well-meaning and honest, but he can’t help but get into Borat-like mischief, and his stay in the golden land of America—which, he has discerned, isn’t quite so golden after all—doesn’t end well. Nichol writes with sharp, knowing exactitude of both Georgia (where she once taught English) and her native Bay Area, and though Makashvili is a figure of jape and jest, he’s by no means a caricature.Indeed, he’s one of the most fully realized characters in recent memory, and readers will take much pleasure in going along on his adventures—and misadventures.

Kirkus Reviews