Devoured Rejection in a day. I read Private Citizens a few years ago, and remember thinking the first 2/3s was great, and that the final act being a total mess.
As far as literary merit goes, Rejection felt much stronger than PC- the short story form really allows for just enough exposition without getting too bogged down in plot, and lets the characters shine without becoming caricatures of themselves.
I loved the first four stories. I felt seen in each one of them. I spent all of my 20s and half of my thirties single and dating, and I have been a version of Craig, Alison, Max, and even Neil! - and I think that’s why they resonated with me so much.
Main Character is the one I want to reread the most, though. No one has figured out how to write the internet experience very well (Patricia Lockwood tried and failed, Lauren Oyler tried and failed, Honor Levy…might do it?), but Tulathimutte seemed to capture (for me at least!) how obsessed and deranged twitter can make a very type of person.
Interestingly, Tulathimutte said he began Rejection in 2011, before Private Citizens. Will and Cory would've fit in quite well in Rejection, while Henrik and Linda would be more on the other side of the social divide.
I'm excited to get my hands on this book at some point, but I just want to appreciate your casual Great Halifax Explosion reference. Please include deep-cut Canadiana in every one of your future posts!!
I like rejection porn but I can't take it that seriously, which made "The Feminist" fall flat to me--surely part of being a mass shooter is having a juvenile sensitivity to rejection and an outsized sense of despair that may or may not reflect one's prospects in reality. The protagonist of Feminist is put through every emotional and physical humiliation possible over the course of what seems to be decades, and it's all kicked off by a bunch of castrating lesbians, no less!
i'm on record as a huge tulathimutte fan -- i think he's one of the best + most important fiction writers working, and has been for some time. the sexual mores of millennials are ripe for satire, and are remarkably under-discussed in contemporary fiction. but i sense a growing slipperiness about his work, to the extent i find he undermines his own subject matter.
like, when The Feminist was published -- the fact that he felt compelled to go on record and say hey, this is a work of fiction, im not endorsing this character? online publishing is a fraught space, but you can stand by your work. i find that story wildly observant, humorous, brave in its way -- but also kinda toothless? the clinical narration bestows objectivity, and the story is weaker for it. there's no real effort to inhabit the character, because that might imply sympathy.
and it's clear to me tulthimutte *is* sympathetic, in some form, to these emasculated rejects, that he considers them a silent majority of sorts, that smartphones + dating apps + wellness culture have further marginalized + radicalized them. yet there's always plausible deniability baked into his framing: we should recognize his characters, but we should also laugh at them. we may relate to certain experiences, but we should not seriously entertain their ideas. by virtue of reading his stories, we are rendered superior. the New York Times can safely print a glowing endorsement.
that's how satire -- and fiction more broadly -- works. i guess there's a tendency to moralize given the amoral subject matter. but it makes me question the medium. if these themes + characters are so important to entertain, they shouldn't be so easy to dismiss. surely there's a way to broach these phenomena without seeming reflexively sympathetic to like, incels and pickup artists and the like
To be fair, if your goal is to rack up a body count, you need to have sex with a lot of partners. One, done, on to the next one. Wash, rinse, repeat. You can even turn it on or off, spend the working week with your nose firmly pressed to the grindstone so that the weekends are free for you to spend chasing after strange.
For better or for worse, if your goal is to have A Relationship, this is more of an ongoing thing, and can be done with one other human person throughout one's entire adult life. Most romantic human relationships don't really lend themselves to the on-again, off-again thing, at least as a planned or scheduled activity.
Devoured Rejection in a day. I read Private Citizens a few years ago, and remember thinking the first 2/3s was great, and that the final act being a total mess.
As far as literary merit goes, Rejection felt much stronger than PC- the short story form really allows for just enough exposition without getting too bogged down in plot, and lets the characters shine without becoming caricatures of themselves.
I loved the first four stories. I felt seen in each one of them. I spent all of my 20s and half of my thirties single and dating, and I have been a version of Craig, Alison, Max, and even Neil! - and I think that’s why they resonated with me so much.
Main Character is the one I want to reread the most, though. No one has figured out how to write the internet experience very well (Patricia Lockwood tried and failed, Lauren Oyler tried and failed, Honor Levy…might do it?), but Tulathimutte seemed to capture (for me at least!) how obsessed and deranged twitter can make a very type of person.
Interestingly, Tulathimutte said he began Rejection in 2011, before Private Citizens. Will and Cory would've fit in quite well in Rejection, while Henrik and Linda would be more on the other side of the social divide.
I appreciate so much about this review but especially the naval similie
Thank you, Nikkitha!
I'm excited to get my hands on this book at some point, but I just want to appreciate your casual Great Halifax Explosion reference. Please include deep-cut Canadiana in every one of your future posts!!
"Farewell to Nova Scotia" is a great Canadian folk song, too. Please check it out!
immediately bought the book after reading this. great review! very excited to read it.
Would love to hear your thoughts after you finish!
I like rejection porn but I can't take it that seriously, which made "The Feminist" fall flat to me--surely part of being a mass shooter is having a juvenile sensitivity to rejection and an outsized sense of despair that may or may not reflect one's prospects in reality. The protagonist of Feminist is put through every emotional and physical humiliation possible over the course of what seems to be decades, and it's all kicked off by a bunch of castrating lesbians, no less!
Maybe Craig's narrow shoulders couldn't handle the gun's recoil and he got off with a mere attempted murder conviction
i'm on record as a huge tulathimutte fan -- i think he's one of the best + most important fiction writers working, and has been for some time. the sexual mores of millennials are ripe for satire, and are remarkably under-discussed in contemporary fiction. but i sense a growing slipperiness about his work, to the extent i find he undermines his own subject matter.
like, when The Feminist was published -- the fact that he felt compelled to go on record and say hey, this is a work of fiction, im not endorsing this character? online publishing is a fraught space, but you can stand by your work. i find that story wildly observant, humorous, brave in its way -- but also kinda toothless? the clinical narration bestows objectivity, and the story is weaker for it. there's no real effort to inhabit the character, because that might imply sympathy.
and it's clear to me tulthimutte *is* sympathetic, in some form, to these emasculated rejects, that he considers them a silent majority of sorts, that smartphones + dating apps + wellness culture have further marginalized + radicalized them. yet there's always plausible deniability baked into his framing: we should recognize his characters, but we should also laugh at them. we may relate to certain experiences, but we should not seriously entertain their ideas. by virtue of reading his stories, we are rendered superior. the New York Times can safely print a glowing endorsement.
that's how satire -- and fiction more broadly -- works. i guess there's a tendency to moralize given the amoral subject matter. but it makes me question the medium. if these themes + characters are so important to entertain, they shouldn't be so easy to dismiss. surely there's a way to broach these phenomena without seeming reflexively sympathetic to like, incels and pickup artists and the like
To be fair, if your goal is to rack up a body count, you need to have sex with a lot of partners. One, done, on to the next one. Wash, rinse, repeat. You can even turn it on or off, spend the working week with your nose firmly pressed to the grindstone so that the weekends are free for you to spend chasing after strange.
For better or for worse, if your goal is to have A Relationship, this is more of an ongoing thing, and can be done with one other human person throughout one's entire adult life. Most romantic human relationships don't really lend themselves to the on-again, off-again thing, at least as a planned or scheduled activity.