2020-04-01 Bon Appetit

44 – APRIL 2020 ILLUSTRATIONS BY CLAY HICKSON

ABOUT TWO AND A HALF YEARS AGO, I decided it would

be a good idea to write a book on the side of my full-

time job as a writer (or as I prefer to say, blogger) for

the New Yorker.

In retrospect, I should have planned to take some

time off work, but in defense of my own stupidity—a

good subtitle for a book, come to think of it—I can only

say that, like any other millennial who lacks the

weighted blanket of family money, I understand the

world I came of age in as a sort of Luigi’s Mansion of

institutional collapse and economic precariousness.

Even now I feel fairly certain that if I ever stop working

for more than 45 minutes I’ll lose my health insurance,

bring a curse upon my loved ones, get into an exciting

freak accident, and then die.

But after about a month of trying to activate my book

muscles when I was—to use a rather old-fashioned

phrase—“done with work for the day,” I realized that

my attempts to demarcate one project from another

were (at best) not working and (if I’m being real) ter-

ribly sad. Techniques such as “washing my face at 4

p.m.” and “changing from day sweatpants into night

sweatpants” radiated desperation and unconvincing

performance. It was like putting a checkout divider

Will Write for Pasta

How holing up in a series of remote Airbnbs to work on my book and eat

noodles by the pot reminded me why I write in the first place

by JIA TOLENTINO

The Read