Confidence
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ERIC'S DECEMBER BOOK CLUB SELECTION.
Elizabeth Holmes, The Talented Mr. Ripley, George Santos. Let’s admit it… we’re all fascinated by scam artists, even if we feel guilty about it. So this month, I set out on a mission to find a queer book with a scam artist worth rooting for. Cue my Queer Book Club pick for December: Confidence, by Rafael Frumkin!
Ezra Green doesn’t have a lot going on for him. He’s short, toothy, and halfway to being legally blind. But then he meets Orson —- brilliant, beautiful, and with a mind for hustling. Together, the two embark on the ultimate scam: a company that promises its consumers a lifetime of bliss.
Frumkin takes an evergreen tale, and makes it satirical and engrossing. A story that jumps right off the page without losing sight of a bigger question: is the American Dream a pyramid scheme? And I absolutely love that Frumkin asks this question without framing his characters' sexuality as sites of trauma or some kind of twisted motivation. They’re queer… so what?
If you’re ready to laugh out loud and find some of that promised bliss, Confidence is the book for you. I can’t wait to hear what you think! 💕
xo Eric
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"Theranos but make it gay." --Electric Literature
Best friends (and occasional lovers) Ezra and Orson are teetering on top of the world after founding a company that promises instant enlightenment in this "propulsive, cheeky, eat-the-rich page-turner" (The Washington Post) about scams, schemes, and the absurdity of the American Dream.
At seventeen, Ezra Green doesn't have a lot going on for him: he's shorter than average, snaggle-toothed, internet-addicted, and halfway to being legally blind. He's also on his way to Last Chance Camp, the final stop before juvie.
But Ezra's summer at Last Chance turns life-changing when he meets Orson, brilliant and Adonis-like with a mind for hustling. Together, the two embark upon what promises to be a fruitful career of scam artistry. But things start to spin wildly out of control when they try to pull off their biggest scam yet--Nulife, a corporation that promises its consumers a lifetime of bliss.
"Propulsive" (The New York Times Book Review) and "laugh-out-loud funny" (BuzzFeed), with the suspense of The Talented Mr. Ripley, the decadence of The Great Gatsby, and the wit of Succession, Confidence is a story for anyone who knows that the American Dream is just another pyramid scheme.
About the Author
Rafael Frumkin is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the Medill School of Journalism. His first novel, The Comedown, was published by Henry Holt in 2018 to critical acclaim. His Collection, Bugsy & Other Stories, is forthcoming. He lives with his partner, two cats, and one dog in Carbondale, Illinois, where he is an assistant professor of creative writing at Southern Illinois University.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pub date:
Length: 320 pages
Format: Hardcover