On 'The Secret History': I Know What You Did Last Reading Period
@jfruh The fact that the protagonist misjudged the nature of the MYSTERY was sort of interesting; the problem is, her mistakenness about that left, well, no other tension in the book. I wish Tartt had found some other thread to pick up that would make the whole thing feel meaningful. Instead, the whole book sort of felt like it was about nothing, which made me hate it maybe a bit more than it deserved.
All that having been said, the opening chapter of The Little Friend was gorgeous and chilling, arguably better than anything in The Secret History. I'm sad that the promise of that chapter never really paid out.
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On How To Share Your Good News With Friends
NUMBER NINE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE IN THE WORLD AND SHOULD BE TATTOOED ON EVERYBODY'S FACES
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On Sympathy For Jonathan Franzen
@barnhouse Michael Chabon, OBVIOUSLY.
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On 46 Things to Read and See for David Foster Wallace's 50th Birthday
@hapax P.S. oh, your headline is so awful and beautiful I can scarcely stand it.
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On 46 Things to Read and See for David Foster Wallace's 50th Birthday
Oh, my. This looks like a post I'm going to return to again and again and again. Thank you for making the effort to curate and share this collection on a sad, sad anniversary.
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On Survey Says! The Complete Online Dating Advice Guide for Men
I was excited to read this after filling out the survey, but found myself feeling really enhhh about the final product. It just seems really tame: no cuss-words, no hilarious sexual stories, no bite, no Awl. And then I saw who sponsored it and realized we been had.
Next time, guys, post the real answers, not the defanged Cosmo-friendly half-answers you posted here. And if that means not having eHarmony looking over your shoulder, well.
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On Some Advice for Young People
LOL @ your first sentence. No young person has ever asked an older person for advice about anything.
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On My Three-Month Facebook Dialogue With A Scammer From Malaysia Pretending To Be A Beautiful Woman
When I'm really upset I'm also known to rant an apartment.
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On Do You Know What Time It Is?
Mad love for the cartography posts. I grew up in Toronto, which is in boring ol' EST, but we all got used to TV and radio announcers saying things like "Tune in at seven! Eight-thirty in Newfoundland." As kids we added "-thirty in Newfoundland" to all kinds of sentences, which made them funny. Try it!
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On Today Only: The Awl Is Auditioning New Commenters!
@Minou Last I heard, that job was outsourced to eHarmony.