2019

Several people who weren’t Andy walked by as I waited for him. Manhattan is less legit than it once was, for sure, but this is still the city that never sleeps. It is also the city of ‘Behold the field in which I grow my fucks. Lay thine eyes upon it and see that it is barren.’ People gave the sculpture a quick glance and kept on walking, just as I had very nearly done. I tried to look busy. Manhattan’s a safe place, but that doesn’t mean a twenty-three-year-old woman by herself on the street at 3 A.M. isn’t going to get randomly harassed.

I first heard of Hank Green’s debut story An Absolutely Remarkable Thing in November 2018’s Book of the Month (not sponsored), and I was skeptical even then. I was instantly minded of 2016’s Sleeping Giants, but other than that it was hard for me to get an impression of what I was supposed to expect from this book.

Now that I’ve read Green’s book, I’m still not entirely sure whether what I got from it is what they’d intended (or what they’d advertised). It’s been a really interesting reading experience. I hope these insights prove helpful for prospective readers!