I bought this book because I’d read the Ahegao story in The Paris Review. It felt fresh — it was totes cringe, but very funny and kinda devastating. It’s also included in this book, which is a collection of (pretty) tightly connected short stories.
Aaaah! Tulathimutte was the guy who was an internet phenomenon back in 2019 — it was published in n+1 and was suddenly The Discourse. I didn’t read it myself back then, but I saw people arguing about it.
And… it’s even more cringe-worthy than Ahegao. It’s funny, but I wasn’t totally convinced by it. I mean — why would people continue to hang out with this creep for decades? He seemed to lack in any quality whatsoever that’d make him bearable — he’s not even funny. So, I dunno…
There’s other stories here that are more successful — this one is hilarious. And if Peter Thiel were ever to read something, I think he’d go “this guy’s got the right idea! Let’s get him a job with Trump!”
That is, I think the broad satire has been overtaken by current events, and reading the end of this story, where (oops spoilers) this guy gets his comeuppance reads like a wonderful fantasy from a gentler age.
The longest story in the book is also the weakest, by far. The first half is (I’m guessing) based mostly on Tulathimutte’s life, and he’s far gentler with his personal stand-in than he is with any of the other protagonists — all the other protagonists seem like people that annoy Tulathimutte a lot and that he wants to get revenge on, while Bee is a Mary Sue. And then the last half is a tedious exegesis on Twitter drama. It’s so boring that it’s hard to believe that it’s written by the same guy who wrote Ahegao. (Which, of course, the text suggests that it isn’t.) It has the unfortunate stench of someone who’s gone viral once and desperately tries to make it happen again.
So… I’m disappointed. I mean, it’s pretty good, but it’s not really all there.
The most-liked review on Goodreads is:
It’s a pretty well-reviewed book, so of course I go to the 1-star reviews and see whether there’s anything amusing there. I love reading 1-star reviews of books I kinda like…
Heh heh heh.
He has a point.
I like this long review. It’s apparently written in realish time, as the book was read, and I like that approach.
Rejection (2024) by Tony Tulathimutte (buy new, buy used, 3.81 on Goodreads)