Thoughtful review, but ultimately I found Witt's treatment of Andrew completely inappropriate.
The story of her breakup with Andrew is exhaustively re-litigated in a way that made me feel that the author wanted to be right and wanted to make sure that the world knows that she's in the right and he was in the wrong, and it's all rather artless and uninteresting, because she doesn't have enough distance from the break-up to ask more interesting questions or find more interesting observations about the experience.
She's frustratingly inconsistent in her narrative, for example, moving out permanently, then later, saying that "he had severed permanently" the connection between the two of them. She talks about blocking him from messaging and social media, then complains that he changed all of his social media handles.
The breakup story in particular feels like a journal entry that needed time to cure and be rewritten for public consumption.
I came for the rave content, which contained some interesting observations, and ended up being the high point of the book, even though it was maybe 20% of the material. The come-down from that high was harsh indeed. I really didn't need to see Andrew's mental health issues dragged through the streets. That felt petty and unkind and unnecessary -- and worse -- like I was reading an untrustworthy narrator.
What a thoughtful review. Excited to dig into Witt's work after reading this.
Thank you!
Thoughtful review, but ultimately I found Witt's treatment of Andrew completely inappropriate.
The story of her breakup with Andrew is exhaustively re-litigated in a way that made me feel that the author wanted to be right and wanted to make sure that the world knows that she's in the right and he was in the wrong, and it's all rather artless and uninteresting, because she doesn't have enough distance from the break-up to ask more interesting questions or find more interesting observations about the experience.
She's frustratingly inconsistent in her narrative, for example, moving out permanently, then later, saying that "he had severed permanently" the connection between the two of them. She talks about blocking him from messaging and social media, then complains that he changed all of his social media handles.
The breakup story in particular feels like a journal entry that needed time to cure and be rewritten for public consumption.
I came for the rave content, which contained some interesting observations, and ended up being the high point of the book, even though it was maybe 20% of the material. The come-down from that high was harsh indeed. I really didn't need to see Andrew's mental health issues dragged through the streets. That felt petty and unkind and unnecessary -- and worse -- like I was reading an untrustworthy narrator.