“A sharp and affecting meditation on the contours of friendship, the seams of our digital lives, and the elasticity of memory. Wickedly funny and deeply impactful. . . . It's a literal triumph.”—Bryan Washington, author of Memorial and Lot
“Astonishingly intelligent. . . . A stunning first novel.” —Brandon Taylor, author of The Late Americans
“At heart a millennial’s take on grief-inflected nostalgia. . . . “See Friendship” rejects catharsis in favor of the diffuse grays of extended mourning. . . . The final chapter decenters Jacob in order to unfold outward — wonderfully so, like its own small metaphor of the internet. Gordon’s smart novel on the warping effects of nostalgia and technology asks us to follow some Forsterian advice from a century ago: Only connect.” — The New York Times Book Review
Critic Jeremy Gordon makes his literary debut with this whip-smart novel of contemporary fiction about a young man who learns the devastating truth behind his friend's death, propelling him on an odyssey of discovery into the nature of grief in the digital age, the meaning of friendship, and the limits of memory.
Amid the ongoing decimation of media, Jacob Goldberg, a culture writer in New York, knows what will save him: a podcast. And not just any podcast, but something that will demonstrate his singular thoughtfulness in an oversaturated, competitive market. When Jacob learns the true, tragic circumstances behind the mysterious death of Seth, one of his best friends from high school, his world is turned completely upside down. But when the dust settles, he realizes he has an idea worth digging into—a search for the truth about friendship and memory.
Of course, it's not so simple. Learning the truth—or at least, the beginning of it—sends Jacob spiraling. His increasing obsession ultimately leads him back home to Chicago in this complex coming of age story, where he tracks down Lee, a once up-and-coming musician who probably knew Seth best at the end of his life. As his investigation deepens, Jacob's drive to find out the truth—and whether there's a deeper story to be told about the fault lines of our memories, life and death on the internet, and the people we never forget—grows into a desperation to discover whether it even matters.
A poignant and funny work of literary fiction about grief, loneliness, memory, and the unique existential questions inherent to the digital age, See Friendship introduces a new voice in fiction—a writer known for his pitch-perfect cultural criticism, with a depth of literary talent.