ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLYāS 10 BEST DEBUT NOVELS OF THE YEAR
āA charming, well-observed debut,ā (NPR) featuring a gay male graduate student who falls for his brilliant female classmate, āyouāll tear through this tale of a thoroughly modern love triangleā (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 writerās 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 āhelpā Richard write his papers in exchange for his company, despite Richardās fairly obvious sexual orientation. Still, he needs her help, and it doesnāt 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 Richardās flaws. As the two relationships reach points of serious commitment, Richard soon finds himself on a romantic and existential collision courseāone that brings about surprising revelations.
āIntelligent, entertaining and elegantly writtenā (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 itās 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. āThis marvelously witty take on dating in New York City and the blurry nature of desire announces Gregor as a fresh, electric new voiceā (Publishers Weekly, starred review).