Perhaps Mandel changed the name because she did something that almost nobody writing realistic autofiction does: she made her stand-in the story’s most readily sympathetic character, an earnest artist who genuinely respects her fans, loves her family, and who has generous patience for stupid questions. Hers is a charmed life, with the biggest problem for most of the book being that she misses her husband and child but likes being on tour.
in an essay about simulation theory. Kehe argues that several recent books touching on simulation theory “make the case not only that oneI bet Mandel would agree. Toward the end of his story, Gaspary thinks: “If definitive proof emerges that we’re living in a simulation, the correct response to that news will beA life lived in simulation is still a life.” This line is the skeleton key to Mandel’s great theme. Artifice isn’t the enemy of meaning.