A murderous bomb is dropped in the first chapter, but this page-turning thrill is quickly dashed as the story veers headlong into a romance. My disinterest in the burgeoning affair only grew as Eli, the narrator, gave most of his descriptive efforts to the appearance of his love interest, and downright soured as their banter grew in dysfunction. In one scene, said girlfriend flies halfway across the country to pick up an emotionally-wounded Eli, only to be subjected to his scorn over her hiking gear. Her response? "A little barbed… but I'll take it. At least it's words. At least you're talking." Really? Is it possible for self-esteem to be so low? (Editorial note: Between Eli's inability to take his supposed beloved seriously to his ongoing infatuation with an ex, and even his convenient socialism, this character seemed based on a former flame of mine, which did not help in my reading.)
The ex of his obsession, Alex, is too pliable to nail down–at once manipulative and gullible — but there is a somewhat redeeming scene with Eli's mother, redeeming in the sense that it portrays a female character with self-knowledge when she says, "You pretend you're the kind of son who still comes to his mother when he needs help, I'll pretend I'm the kind of mother who can still help you."
While the plot of this book will propel you onward, in the end it's a curious journey. Sam, the object of Eli's man-crush, works well as a cipher, as does their final outcome. But this shedding of skin might have been better served by another point of view. I don't think I'm the only one who knows this narrator — the perpetual grad student, forever bumming rides and sandwiches as he condemns your bougie lifestyle. I would have been more intrigued to hear the story from the point of view of Alex, the ex. Her character, shifty as it was, offered something of a moral center in that her actions made sense. The real insight here might be to explain how these movements stall. We all must die to what we think we are in order to be what we are.
Lisa L. Kirchner is the author of the critically acclaimed Hello American Lady Creature: What I Learned as a Woman in Qatar. Her work has appeared in book anthologies, magazines & newspapers including The Washington Post and salon.com. Celebrity interviews include: Amy Sedaris, Xavier Dolan and John Sayles. At one time she was simultaneously the dating columnist for an alternative newsweekly, bridal editor for a society rag and the religion reporter for a gay and lesbian newspaper. More at lisalkirchner.com.
This article appears in May 3-10, 2018.