Tony Tulathimutte’s firest story collection Rejection plumbs the depth of human loneliness and desire for connection. The stories feature characters who have been cast off from society due to physical ugliness, cultural difference, or emotional problems. Each character is seeking validation through sex, friendship, or other means—and their failure to receive what they need causes them to lash out in various ways. The collection begins with “Feminist”, a story about a young man “dragging his virginity like a body bag into his mid-20s”, rejected by all women he meets despite his self-professed feminism and sensitivity to the plight of women. We watch as the narrator descends further and further into violent incel-dom, consumed by his hatred of the women that won’t sleep with him.
Another story, “Pics”, follows a young insecure woman who becomes obsessed with stalking the male friend that she had a one-night stand with, while another, “Ahegao, or, The Ballad of Sexual Repression” tells the story of a gay man who was brutally bullied for being small and Thai, and struggles to find a partner who can accept his specific kinks. The story culminates with a multi-page script of the narrator’s sexual fantasies that he sends to an Only Fans creator, so elaborate that it bends the mind. The collection focuses a lot on characters who are still exploring their identity—whether it be gender or cultural, and how these characters struggle against the way they’re perceived by the rest of society.
My favorite story in the collection though was “Our Dope Future”, structured as a Reddit post written by a tech bro confused about why his relationship with his girlfriend went south, after he forces her to comply with his toxic positivity and bizarre personal habits. The narrator’s out-of-touch demeanor and frequent usage of internet slang makes for a hilarious skewering of modern masculinity and posturing that made me laugh out loud multiple times. Tulathimutte has no inhibition or fear—lending his characters a brutal honesty and his writing an elusive and complex quality. The collection is a display of great talent that managed to be a deeply enjoyable read despite reaching towards the dregs of the human mind.