Apartment - Teddy Wayne

A novel set in the late 90s in which the protagonist and his roommate watch Friends and their classmates quote episodes, and make jokes about which Friends character they are? Could I be any more impressed?

In all seriousness, though, Teddy Wayne has crafted an incredible novel that, at a mere 195 pages, packs one hell of an emotional punch. I wasn’t prepared, when I sat down last night to read the first few pages, to be drawn into a story that I couldn’t step away from, and a few short reading hours later be finishing as a singular, “Wow",” left my mouth.

“In 1996, the unnamed narrator of Apartment is living in an illegally sublet of a rent-stabilized apartment in Manhattan and attending an MFA program at Columbia on his father’s dime. Feeling lonely and misplaced among his classmates, he finds escape from his lifelong solitude in a surprising friendship with Billy, a talented, charismatic midwesterner on an academic scholarship. When he offers his spare bedroom – rent-free – to Billy, the close quarters and power in balance, not to mention the radically different upbringings, breed tensions neither man could predict.”

Wayne has written a story about male friendship, and the fragility of modern masculinity, through the eyes of an insecure writer protagonist. A protagonist who, surrounded by seemingly more talented writers, on course for greater things than he, pores his energy into a friendship that is destined to implode under the weight of such pressure. Not only does Wayne explore the dynamic of male friendship, but also the politics of two men from distinctly different backgrounds; and he does so in a way that isn’t intrusive, and feels entirely natural in the narrative.

I was astounded by the emotional complexity wound into such a short novel and particularly impressed by the lack of distraction by the plot. Wayne writes his relatable protagonist so fluently, so insightfully, and with such subtlety, that it’s impossible to not empathise with his loneliness, and a sense of desperation for a meaningful connection, and what acts that might drive one to in the face of fear of loss.

Apartment is available February 25. Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing for the advanced review copy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

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Buy Apartment from Apple Books or Amazon.