32. Matthew Davis, Let Me Try Again, and the Gen Z Superego

This podcast is a presentation of ⁠The Meow Library⁠.

Matthew Davis's ⁠Let Me Try Again⁠ can be purchased ⁠here⁠.

Matthew Davis's Let Me Try Again is a hilarious, deeply human look Gen Z's calamitous superego. It opens on a suicidal fantasy, quickly giving way to a dense and dizzying edifice of self-recrimination — centered, in true Zoomer fashion, on the singular, cosmic theme of much “alt-lit” — a twentysomething breakup. But this time, it’s done with class.

Davis’s dire, uproarious idiom evokes an atmosphere of mortifying regret (the very quiddity of Zoomer being), riding the inexorable crests and valleys of the on-again, off-again “situationship” to Oblivion and back. And somehow, he makes sure you enjoy every second of it.

There exists no better analog to the book's central refrain than the fraught, tenuous, but always rewarding bond between human and cat, so we will now meow at you for 30 minutes, giving you time to think about all you’ve loved and lost, drop the pathos, and laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Sales of Meow: A Novel help fund The Meow Library's continuing research into the art and science of meowing.

Matthew Davis's Let Me Try Again is available through Amazon and wherever books are sold.