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The Book of George by Kate Greathead

Literary fiction

The Book of George

by Kate Greathead

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Quick take

Close that useless dating app on your phone and open this incisive sendup of half the guys you were swiping on instead.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Unlikeable_Narrator

    Unlikeable narrator

  • Illustrated icon, Millenial

    Millennial

  • Illustrated icon, Snarky

    Snarky

  • Illustrated icon, NYC

    NYC

Synopsis

If you haven’t had the misfortune of dating a George, you know someone who has. He’s a young man brimming with potential but incapable of following through; noncommittal to his long-suffering girlfriend, Jenny; distant from but still reliant on his mother; funny one minute, sullenly brooding the next. Here, Kate Greathead paints one particular, unforgettable George in a series of droll and surprisingly poignant snapshots of his life over two decades.

And yet, it’s hard not to root for George at least a little. Beneath his cynicism is a reservoir of fondness for Jenny’s valiant willingness to put up with him. Each demonstration of his flaws is paired with a self-eviscerating comment. No one is more disappointed in him than himself (except maybe Jenny and his mother). As hilarious as it is astute and singular as it is universal, The Book of George is a deft, unexpectedly moving portrait of millennial masculinity.

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Get an early look from the first pages of The Book of George.

The Book of George

1. THE SHOPPING PROBLEM

George, 12–18

To George’s D.A.R.E. graduation in the Cochran Gym, his father wore a suit. The suit hadn’t registered as embarrassing to George, who couldn’t even remember what it looked like when he overheard his mother mention it to a friend on the phone later that week, but from her derisive tone in describing it—custom-made, seersucker, J. Press—he understood that there was something inherently foolish about it. Or perhaps it was his father’s wearing it to such a silly occasion: George and his classmates on the bleachers singing a song about abstaining from drugs and alcohol, the culmination of the substance-abuse unit of their seventh-grade health class.

George struggled to grasp the nuances of his mother’s contempt, but it was the beginning of his awareness of a problem in his parents’ marriage that had to do with his father’s love of expensive clothes.

Ellen didn’t discuss it with her kids, but she wasn’t exactly sotto voce when venting to her friends on the phone, and there were certain cutting remarks that George wished he hadn’t heard. Not normal. Shopping the way a woman shops—a woman with a shopping problem.

It was hard for George to imagine his mother having any vices. Ellen, who wore very little makeup and had let her hair go gray, rolled her eyes when people referred to her as beautiful, but she maintained the body of the ballet dancer she’d been in her youth and there was an awareness of her own grace in the way she moved. Her posture could be forbidding. She had a way of silently materializing at the threshold of her children’s rooms at incriminating moments, though she rarely intervened beyond expressing her opinion.

“It’s just not very attractive,” she’d told Cressida the first time she’d caught her smoking.

George recalled, as a young child, a tender, involved mother, but as he got older she withdrew. By the time he and Cressida were teenagers, Ellen seemed to view them as fully formed people who were going to do what they were going to do. She supported their endeavors and applauded their successes, but their accomplishments were not a particular source of pride for her. Nor was she inclined to interpret their struggles as a referendum on her mothering.

Denis had always been the more parental of the two, though between working and commuting, he was not around as much.

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Why I love it

Dating is…hard. The most creative method I’ve seen lately is a wall of Polaroid photographs you can visit in my local park to post your own, peruse, and find a local match. If all goes to plan, you’ll find the love of your life—no fear of commitment, no communication issues, no unbearable quirks. Ask anyone who is currently participating in it, and you’ll know the odds aren’t great. Most of the time, you’ll find someone much like the man at the center of The Book of George.

Kate Greathead’s new novel is a strikingly realistic portrait of a guy who just can’t seem to get it right. He should have everything in his life ahead of him—a long-term girlfriend, sharp wit, and intelligence—but he consistently gets in his own way. In a dazzling New York City setting, George self-destructs: hurting the people around him and luxuriating in his own self-cynicism. It’s not that George doesn’t know what he’s doing—he’s a painfully self-aware character that just can’t seem to exit this cycle.

The Book of George is a brilliant character study that perfectly captures the millennial experience. While George’s actions are often hard to watch, Greathead manages to infuse every page with a satisfying and infectious dose of dark humor. I kept turning pages, waiting for a great reckoning in George’s life—and trust me, it came. Everyone out there knows someone like George, and this book is an incredible—and hilarious—emotional catharsis that you must read.

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Literary fiction
View all
Intermezzo
The Book of George
Real Americans
Dirty Diana
Wellness
Margo’s Got Money Troubles
The God of the Woods
Same As It Ever Was
Annie Bot
Bear
Mercury
True Biz
Family Happiness
The Lady Waiting
The Other Valley
Hard by a Great Forest
Good Material
The Bullet Swallower
Happy All the Time
Rental House
Alice Sadie Celine
Let Us Descend
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Shark Heart
Homeseeking
Transcendent Kingdom
Hello Beautiful
Dominicana
What's Mine and Yours
The Unsettled
Ask Again, Yes
Vladimir
Infinite Country
The Prophets
Normal People
The Verifiers
Salvage the Bones
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
I Have Some Questions for You
Black Buck
The History of Love
Age of Vice
Paper Names
The Light Pirate
The Secret History
The Kite Runner
Memorial
The Half Moon
Happiness Falls
The Gifted School
The Death of Vivek Oji
The Knockout Queen
Little Monsters
Yerba Buena
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Free Food for Millionaires
A Burning
The Mothers
The Water Dancer
Small Country
The Sympathizer
Fleishman Is in Trouble
Lot
An American Marriage
The Animators
The Mars Room
Exit West
White Fur
Woman No. 17
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Eat Only When You're Hungry
Rainbirds
A Ladder to the Sky
Golden Child
The Goldfinch
The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P
& Sons
The Association of Small Bombs
Lolly Willowes
All Grown Up
Marlena
Signal Fires
Someday, Maybe
Woman of Light
Marrying the Ketchups
The Shards
Blue Sisters