23 Different Jobs

Maybe someone in your family bought you this book to read, and you thought, “Yeah, sure, why not? They’re short stories, so it shouldn’t take me too long to read; and there isn’t really continuity, so I don’t have to worry about putting it down for a while if I get busy.” You were maybe a little worried because the book did seem sort of long, but you were into it. You turned it over to read the back, and this was what you encounter. Some second-person narration that seemed like a complete rip-off of Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler—but, you liked that book. What’s this book about (“Yes, finally,” you say)? It’s about different things. One story is about a pop culture–loving android named Biff, while yet another involves a genderless narrator and a baseball bat. If you’re looking for themes, some keywords are mortality, loss, pop culture, originality, cynicism, fantasy, and of course, work. Does that draw you in enough to crack open the book now, or will you wait and, in true Calvino fashion, get comfortable before reading? If you’ve read this far, you’ll probably like this book. But maybe you think it’s obtuse. Read the book and find out.