Last year, I read several novels featuring well-educated, disaffected men. Debuts by Michael Magee, Tom Lamont and Mark Bowles spring to mind. The Book of George features another restless modern male, this time written by a woman. American Kate Greathead’s bittersweet second novel charts pivotal moments in the eponymous protagonist’s life, from growing up in a New York suburb to his late 30s.
After graduating as a philosophy student, George believes his best years are behind him: “Never again would life be so promising, so full of friends and intellectual pursuits.” Masking his frustrations and depression by sneering at those he deems less intelligent, George sabotages his own attempts to find happiness or a meaningful career.
His friends see him as a joker, but his long-suffering girlfriend, Jenny, recognises his procrastination as self-absorption. George and Jenny meet while working as waiters in a restaurant – he needs to cover his basic expenses, she is saving to go to law school. Privately, he likens her “cheery innocence” to “an abrasive on a wound”.
George has ambitions to be a writer. As we follow his and Jenny’s on-off relationship in 14 self-contained chapters (the final one from her perspective), we learn the extent of his unravelling. In a rare fit of pique, Jenny admonishes him: “Some people go through life trying to build others up… You like to poke holes.” A former friend is less forgiving when she tells George: “I know exactly who you are… you’re bitter about the fact that for the first time in history, being a privileged white guy is not going to get you all the things.” After he finally submits his short story collection, a literary agent delivers the sucker punch when she praises and rejects George in the same breath.
Set against historic events such as 9/11, the rise of Trump and the Covid pandemic, Greathead conveys the challenges faced by an entire generation with wit and compassion. This absorbing portrait of millennial malaise will surely resonate with anyone who knows a George.
• The Book of George by Kate Greathead is published by Atlantic Books (£16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
