Waiting for the Electricity - Softcover

Endearing and dryly hilarious.

Seamlessly inventive and enchanting.

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

This inventive 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.

Hilarious...An assured debut.

Utterly Winning.

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

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 Electricity does 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 makes Waiting for the Electricity so 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.

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.

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

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 shortagesIn 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 jobs are . . . 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.