REJECTION by Tony Tulathimutte

This may not be my least favorite book ever, but it’s close.  These linked stories are about angry people who, despite their efforts, are experiencing rejection in a major way.  To be clear, this is not a novel.  Some stories are sad, some are surprising, and some are just absurd, with characters that are more like caricatures then real people.  One character has a fantasy so outrageous that I can almost imagine it as a pornographic cartoon. I concede that some characters have very unfortunate physical characteristics, causing their mental health to suffer and leading them to wallow in self-pity.  Social media plays a large role here, and the lingo, acronyms and texting shorthand kept me from understanding everything that happens, and I didn’t bother to investigate further.  Identity is a major theme, and in one story the protagonist refuses all labels as far as ethnicity, gender, whatever, refusing to be pigeonholed and ultimately being resigned to a life online. If this book is supposed to be funny, I missed the point.  If I am supposed to empathize with these offbeat characters, I have to admit that I could not warm up to them or even feel sorry for them as social outcasts, and I could not wait to be done with this book.  I have obviously aged out of this type of literature.