A Guide for Boys: Adventures and Other Ventures in Human Capital (Ages 6+) humorously leverages the self-help genre to depict how the logic of neoliberal capitalism saturates every facet of modern life. The novel is narrated by a nameless office worker who has been coerced into indefinitely living at his cubicle at the onset of a global pandemic after an opaque and uncontestable algorithm determines that, within his department, he is the essential worker whose life is most expendable. As he provides advice for how Boys might prepare for nuclear war with Iran, accept that their fathers will one day complete shirtless yard work while singing along to “It’s Raining Men” by the Weather Girls, and blame their unfinished homework on Monsanto, it becomes clear that the narrator has chosen to spend his last days writing a love letter in the form of a book truly intended for someone who believes Domino’s “isn’t pizza” (even thin crust!) though he loves her anyway.
Preface — Shenandoah’s The Peak
Excerpt 4 — Shenandoah
Excerpt 3 — Tampa Review
Excerpt 2 — The Normal School
Excerpt 1 — Passages North
[I am currently seeking representation.]