Misrecognition
Sharp and funny, but never cruel or condescending ... These rare narrative doldrums are made good by Newbound’s considerable wit, deployed through her astute use of the close-third-person point of view ... A quietly commanding debut by a writer of intense precision and restraint.
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It does not make for pleasurable reading to be kept inside the egocentric but lobotomized experience of heartbreak, with its keynotes of hollowness and despair. It thus comes as a relief when Newbound introduces Elsa’s rebound ... Madison Newbound refuses her protagonist any obvious routes to happiness. What she offers Elsa, at last, has far greater worth: a reminder that what we ought to find in relationships, any kind of relationship, is something like mutual understanding, like recognition.
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This debut is realistic in its portrayal of a listless young woman lacking direction, and some readers will find many moments to relate to. The endless repetition of actions and thought patterns that fill the first two-thirds of the book mirror the monotony of Elsa’s days, but they quickly begin to drag.
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