Fuccboi A novel

Late in Conroe's debut novel, the main character (also named Sean Thor) and his mother have a brief discussion about the Japanese literary genre I-novel, in which the author is a character, narration is introspective and revealing, and the writing style is often experimental. Fuccboi is Conroe's I-novel, and it traces the contradictions of a young man coming of age in Philadelphia a year after the 2016 election. Sean gets by working for Postmates and striving to live what he thinks of as an artist's life while trying to write and sell his novel. He attends poetry readings and delves into "serious" literature but also enjoys shrooms and molly and looks for the next "bae" or his "ex-bae" to get "inside." His struggle with being masculine but woke is psychosomatically explored as he develops a debilitating skin condition that a dermatologist believes may be due to a lack of testosterone. While metaphors like this are overworked, Conroe's stylish, conversational writing (he thanks his publisher for letting him write how he talks) is intriguing and will appeal most to experimental fiction readers.

Conroe delivers a striking and hyper-stylized debut about a young male writer, also named Sean Thor Conroe, whose lexicon reflects Drake lyrics and the scrolls of Reddit and Twitter. In Conroe's linguistic world, every love interest is a "bae," every shine of glory is a "flex," everything subtle is "lowkey," and every suspicion is merely "sus." Sean, having graduated from Swarthmore but still yet to establish himself in the literary world, works as a messenger for Postmates, indulges in Adderall and Molly, and nurses a broken heart over a girl he calls "ex bae." His life, though, slowly falls apart as he develops an intensely debilitating skin condition almost akin to leprosy. Along the way, Sean demonstrates a passion for Nietzsche, Bolaño, and Wittgenstein, and offers credible insights on their work, sometimes by comparing it to hip-hop or vice versa. He also reveals some self-reflection by discussing the "rape-y" elements of his work with "editor bae" ("the whole point is to look at those impulses, to understand where they come from, that we all have em, so that they don't manifest in real life"), which adds a bit of depth. Some will find Conroe's prose fresh, others annoying, but he's landed on an undeniably rich mix of ingredients for autofiction. Agent: Julie Flanagan, ICM Partners. (Aug.)