The Sunday Digest 092

“Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything."

Jul 21, 2024

Welcome to The Sunday Digest — a free Sunday newsletter featuring long (and some short) reads, original columns, things I’ve saved over the last week, relaxing playlists, episodes releases, exclusive product drops, and more. Yes, you can reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you. Or, if podcasts are more your speed on Sundays, we’ve got that too.

Sunday Read: Where Is All the Sad Boy Literature?

by Katie Tobin for Esquire

Unfortunately, I’ve fallen into a routine where I only really read on vacation. On an extended trip in 2022, I did something I never do — I read two books back-to-back on one trip. Finishing two books in a year is impressive for me given my current cadence, so polishing off two Sally Rooney novels in a row made me feel like I was the most well-read man on my return flight.

After completing Normal People and Conversations with Friends, however, I found myself not really knowing where to turn. Not only did I fall in love with Sally Rooney’s writing, but I fell even more in love with the flawed characters in the webs that she spun.

And I’ve been chasing that high ever since. As it turns out, I’m not the only one. Here’s an excerpt from this week’s read.

Where are all the sad young men in literature, then? The male equivalent of My Year of Rest and Relaxation’s droll narrator? The modern-day Holden Caulfields? As far as the Internet is largely concerned, there aren’t any. Or at least very few of them receive the same hype as books by and about women. Perhaps it’s because there’s a certain stigma surrounding male vulnerability, but in contemporary fiction, the subject is wildly overlooked. This discrepancy isn’t just a matter of representation, though: It’s reflective of wider attitudes toward masculinity. If social norms dictate that men should embody strength and stoicism, there’s little space left for those who don’t. Ultimately, fiction plays a crucial role in shaping our self-image and reality; it’s why the relative absence of young men in recent fiction profoundly affects how we perceive and understand the emotional lives of men more broadly.

Read in full here.

The Sunday Haiku: The Hourglass

No time, all schedule,

Where is it? Is it still here?

Was it ever here?

New Episode › Retail Therapy 082: Caesar Salad, French Fries, and a Martini

Our favorite summer pick-ups thus far, answering a series of travel/packing-related questions inspired by a recent Nylon article, Meal of the Summer (Caesar Salad, French Fries, and a Martini), sad boy lit, Jacob Elordi disciples, reviewing the Notre store in Chicago, and a lot more.

Listen to Retail Therapy on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube (see above), and anywhere else podcasts are found. And a reminder to follow Retail Therapy on Substack!