ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLYâS 10 BEST DEBUT NOVELS OF THE YEAR
âA charming, well-observed debut,â (NPR) featuring a gay male graduate student who falls for his brilliant female classmate, âyouâll tear through this tale of a thoroughly modern love triangleâ (Entertainment Weekly).
Exhausted by dead-end forays in the gay dating scene, surrounded constantly by friends but deeply lonely in New York City, and drifting into academic abyss, twenty-something graduate student Richard has plenty of sources of anxiety. But at the forefront is his crippling writerâs block, which threatens daily to derail his graduate funding and leave Richard poor, directionless, and desperately single.
Enter Anne: his brilliant classmate who offers to âhelpâ Richard write his papers in exchange for his company, despite Richardâs fairly obvious sexual orientation. Still, he needs her help, and it doesnât hurt that Anne has folded Richard into her abundant lifestyle. What begins as an initially transactional relationship blooms gradually into something more complex.
But then a one-swipe-stand with an attractive, successful lawyer named Blake becomes serious, and Richard suddenly finds himself unable to detach from Anne, entangled in her web of privilege, brilliance, and, oddly, her unabashed acceptance of Richardâs flaws. As the two relationships reach points of serious commitment, Richard soon finds himself on a romantic and existential collision courseâone that brings about surprising revelations.
âIntelligent, entertaining and elegantly writtenâ (Adelle Waldman, author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.) Going Dutch is an incisive portrait of relationships in an age of digital romantic abundance, but itâs also a heartfelt and humorous exploration of love and sexuality, and a poignant meditation on the things emotionally ravenous people seek from and do to each other. âThis marvelously witty take on dating in New York City and the blurry nature of desire announces Gregor as a fresh, electric new voiceâ (Publishers Weekly, starred review).