We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby

From her application for The Bachelorette and the social etiquette of doing a poo at college, to more serious topics – the death of her parents and the development of her relationship – Irby has a very particular sense of humour. And I love it. Self-deprecating but also self-reflective, Irby balances the jokes with an exploration of deeper themes, particularly how it is to be alone in the world (as a single person, as an ‘orphan’, and as someone who likes her own company).

She’s one of those writers that I have to monitor my consumption of – my inclination is to go forth and read everything she has written in one big, reading binge. But I know that this also lessens the impact. I have one more collection of her essays in my future – I’ll save it for deep into 2025.

4/5

Tennis Lessons by Susannah Dickey

This coming-of-age story does much more than it says on the packet. The story focuses on an unnamed girl, growing up in a small Irish town. It’s structured as short vignettes, spanning the girl’s memories from age four to her late twenties. The vignettes give an interesting ‘flatness’ to the telling – an ingrown toenail gets the same billing as the breakdown of her parents’ marriage, and her school lunches the same as losing her virginity. I mention the ‘flatness’ because there is one significant event in her teens, that colours her experiences going forward.

What Dickey does very well in this novel is the dialogue and the relationships between the protaganist and her mother, and her best friend, Rachel – authentic, with an appropriate level of humour. Would read more from Dickey in the future.

3.5/5

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

Martyr! focuses on Cyrus. His life has been defined by the tragic death of his mother – killed in an infamous 1988 air disaster, when a US missile cruiser mistakenly shot down an Iranian civilian airliner. He and his father migrate to America to begin a new life. When the story opens, Cyrus is in his late twenties, he’s a recovering alcoholic, and struggling with fragile mental health. Desperate to find meaning in life, Cyrus decides to write a book about martyrdom. When his friend (and sometimes boyfriend) tells him about an installation by a terminally-ill Iranian artist, Orkideh, Cyrus is intrigued. The installation, titled Death-Speak, sees Orkideh living out her last days in public. Cyrus sees this as an opportunity to understand a meaningful death firsthand, and heads to New York to take part in Orkideh’s installation.

There are obvious parallels with Marina Abramović – her life, her work, and in particular her famous performance piece, The Artist is Present at MoMA. The similarities don’t end there – as Cyrus gets to work on his book about martyrs, I couldn’t help but think about Heather Rose’s book, The Museum of Modern Love, which is about Abramović’s performance piece. Is all of this intentional? I don’t know (and I haven’t sought out interviews with the author to find out) and I don’t really care because I love Abramović’s challenging work, I loved Rose’s book, and I think if I had an opportunity to see Orkideh’s Death-Speak, I would.

Once Cyrus met Orkideh, I was totally invested. Prior to that, there were parts of this story that meandered; there were some odd tangents (including dream sequences featuring Lisa Simpson and the Persian poet, Rumi); the premise for the story is somewhat tenuous given that Cyrus’s obsession with martyrs is not really fleshed out; and the writing was occasionally over-worked. But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed where Akbar took me.

3.5/5