He lives with a roommate he cant stand in a shabby Brooklyn apartment.
His academic work has totally stalled.
Dating apps are beginning to yield more misery than pleasure.
Credit: Simon + Schuster
Or maybe Richards just pining for someone.
There is no greater sorrow than to feel like a horny loser in Brooklyn.
Luckily for Richard, the rom-com gods are looking down on him.
The night ends abruptly, and Richard doesnt hear from him again.
Another prospect, gone.
Richard realizes his luck with men has finally turned.
Also: Its with a woman.
The lady in question is Anne, a colleague infatuated with Richard.
Their dynamic immediately swells with confusing intimacy.
In Annes neuroses and intensity, her oddities and intelligence, Richard finds a kindred spirit.
Soon, theyre together constantly.
But then Richard starts seeing Blake seriously too.
Theres a force to it, a kind of revenge element.
Gregors feel for the characters manipulations is slick, if a little severe.
The read on Richard, smart as it is, feels more sociological than empathetic.
Indeed, Gregor oscillates between the kind and vicious versions of this story.
Hes more comfortable within the latter but fights to edge the former to victory.
They could only be kept apart for so long.
They dine together, Anne and Blake at first blissfully unaware of the others prominence in Richards life.
The whole scene is fabulously awkward, reveling in Richards predicament.
How Gregor loves to make his reader squirm.
Or, thats the easy, cynical way of looking at it.
Maybe Gregor is after something deeper.
And yet, each believes, theyve done it.
Why would any of them let go?B+
Related content:
