Hitting this mark is critical (aka, some novel stuff)

Subjects discussed: launch parties, preorder info, kind words, etc.

My novel, See Friendship, is out in less than a month, on March 4. If you’re in New York City, I’ll be formally launching the book at Books Are Magic on March 6, where I’ll be in conversation with Megan Nolan, the author of Ordinary Human Failings and Acts of Desperation. Megan is a great writer and also a pal, so they’re saying it’s going to be more fun than any launch event has ever been.

I’ll also be announcing forthcoming events in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Providence — with more on the way, I think.

The BAM launch is a ticketed event, which can be purchased here. And if you can’t make it, but would like to support the book nonetheless, it would bring everyone a tremendous amount of joy if you ordered a copy through the Books Are Magic site. If you love ordering through Bookshop.org, here is that link as well.

I don’t know what brought you to Air Gordon pt. 2 — a post about Japandroids, or the NBA, or every movie I watched in 2024 — but I do hope you’ll consider it. Throughout this process, my eyes have been opened and shut and opened some more about the myriad ways in which people read — to escape, to explore, to expand their misanthropy, to fantasize about a werewolf fucking a vampire. There are, actually, so many books out there. But I suppose I wrote See Friendship for a reader like myself, a reader who enjoys dipping into other people’s heads and following along with their thoughts and feelings, communicated in the stylishness of “literary fiction.” I was inspired by Eve Babitz, who after the party was over wrote without artifice; I was inspired by Percival Everett, who always made jokes; I was inspired by Rachel Cusk, whose obsessive observations made you go “damn” and also “alright, man.” Yet in all this, it’s mainly a product of myself, which I’m very proud of.

The other day, I got home a little twisted after the bar, and read the first 60 pages or so while I was laying down in bed. My thought: “Whoa… this is still good?” As we all know, your three drinks self is the most honest self possible, and so I’m riding that feeling until it stops.

If you don’t believe me, here are some nice things that have been said about the book by some authors I deeply respect:

Also, Publishers Weekly said it was for readers of Sam Lipsyte’s Homeland, which is a delightful idea. Thank you for reading, as always, and for continuing to read.