Rejection
Rejection in a very online world in Tony Tulathimutte's latest book
Tony Tulathimutte’s latest book, “Rejection” is simultaneously long listed for the 2024 National Book Award for fiction and labeled as perverse and shocking but I haven’t torn through a book so quickly in such a long time.
If the far right read modern novels, this book would surely be banned for its sexual content but I instead see it as a picture of modern loneliness in today’s overly online world.
The characters are all subtly interconnected, in a way reminding me of Brandon Taylor’s “Filthy Animals.” They are united in how their self delusions can warp their reality, yet so relatable and all of us in book club found a morsel of ourselves in some of the characters. This is fundamentally a book that follows a “Rejection plot” rather than a “Redemption plot” (Paris Review), which can be too cringey for folks who don’t want a front row seat to witnessing the characters being rejected by individuals or society.
In “The Feminist” the unnamed young man turns from performative allyship into a chilling final act in an Italian restaurant, mirroring the rise of incel culture.
In “Pics” we see a New York everywoman, whose obsession with her friend and one time sexual partner borders into destruction and lack of sense of self with questionable life choices like getting a raven for her NYC apartment.
In “Ahegao, or, The Ballad of Sexual Repression” a gay Thai man reveals his deepest desires. I can’t spoil the ending but depending on your relationship with embarrassment or shame you might shriek out loud laughing or feel a giant pit of anxiety in your stomach
In “Our Dope Future” the satire hit a little close to home about a Tech Bro overly optimizing his romantic relationship, written entirely in slang. Made me laugh at recognizable behavior but most of the book club folks found him insufferable.
In “Main Character” ENBY Bee was the hardest one to read, because of their determination to live online and destroy other online posters with a myriad of constructed online identities. In one scene tracing back to when they are in college, presumably at a coop at Stanford, they are arguing about how they have the right to not be identified at all, taking me straight back to my Berkeley coop house meetings in tone and energy. My favorite post of hers online where she’s trolling others: “not all of you contain multitudes tbh. some of you are just one guy”
The final 2 chapters are less short stories and more literary choices:
“Sixteen Metaphors” - I can’t even describe what’s he doing here, other than how he sums it up: “Etymologies, fallen meaning borne across time, are throwbacks too. Mixed metaphors fail to bear their meaning across. So they are metaphors for rejection.”
“RE: Rejection” A mock letter from future editors rejecting his novel and explaining to Tulathimutte himself what he did with his whole book and how he constructed and interwove the chapters. He lets us in on the joke with what he’s done with this work.
An “internet book”, I see this book standing the test of time with its touching upon modern loneliness, even when the way we engage on the internet today becomes a charming thing of the past (Reddit threads, Twitter bots, online porn, gaming algorithms) 20 years from now.