by Charles Thaxton

The Idiot – Elif Batuman

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Art about failure, about idiocy — which so much of our art today is — always seems to have this same sense of disingenuousness about it.

When Watched – Leopoldine Core

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Core is skillful at conjuring modern life without ceding to signposts like smartphones or social networks.

Paulina & Fran – Rachel B. Glaser

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In Paulina & Fran we see young women eager to shed conventions but ceaselessly drawn into their current when it comes to the ways humans traditionally relate to each other: with jealousy, longing, pity, hatred, love.

A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara

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There’s a largeness to these characters. They are so suffused with life, with pain, pleasure, intelligence and ambition, that they occasionally feel unreal.

The First Bad Man – Miranda July

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Combat is intimate. Living is intimate. The space between my socks and the front of my boots is intimate.

Love Me Back – Merritt Tierce

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The book provides you with the wincing secondhand anxiety of watching someone smart you know hurt themselves, repeatedly.