Rejection: Fiction

Tulathimutte (Private Citizens) offers a shrewd novel in stories populated by characters longing for IRL connections. In “The Feminist,” a man feels “oppressed” by the patriarchy on account of his “narrow-shouldered” physique. After failing to woo women with his cringey attempts at being an ally, he moderates an incel message board. In “Ahegao,” a shy Thai American man named Kant comes out as gay and lucks into dating the “well-adjusted” Julian. Things get off to a good start, but Kant worries Julian will be turned off by his sadistic sexual preferences. And in “Pics,” Alison is derailed by her friend Nick’s rejection of her after their recent hookup and exhibits increasingly antisocial behavior, such as adopting a violent raven. The lengthy “Main Character,” which includes revelations about all the preceding stories, features Kant’s younger sibling Bee, a nonbinary tech worker who shares their life story in an internet post, beginning with how they sold their gender in grade school for $40 to a boy who wanted to get into the girls’ locker room (“In this way, before I learned gender was fluid, I’d learned it was liquid”). The prose is consistently sharp and funny as Tulathimutte cuts to the truth of his characters’ dilemmas. It’s a first-rate exploration of yearning and solitude. Agent: Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group. (Sept.)