“There is no greater compliment in this world than being the uncooperative catalyst of another person’s misery, if not all-out self-destruction.”

Well, I have a new favorite opening line.

Hell, I have a new favorite opening paragraph:

“The critical word here is uncooperative. It is easy, lazy, and dishonorable to deliberately distress another human being. But to do so unintentionally, or better yet, unwillingly—for one’s mere presence to cause another pain, not by any act of violence, but by the force of the bottomless pool that is unrequited love, that pool that both draws and prevents the other from moving closer—to be loved and not to love back: this is the definition of power.”

Here’s what you can expect from The Portrait of a Mirror:

✓ a love quadrangle sort of á la A Midsummer Night’s Dream and sort of á la an episode of Wife Swap gone wrong
✓ detestable, narcissistic, self-worshipping, self-loathing, yet equally loveable, brilliant, funny, relatable AND beautifully crafted characters
✓ stunning prose chock-full of laugh-out-loud humor, moving artistic and literary analysis, and stop-you-in-your-tracks commentary on modern dating, social posturing and voyeurism & the lives/careers/habits of the post-ivy-league crowd
✓ a new favorite book

I devoured this book in under twenty-four hours and am already certain I will count it among my favorite reads of 2022. I highly recommend it for anyone that enjoys Sally Rooney, Ottessa Moshfegh or any books with a good pinch of realism and ambiguous morality.

A note on its satire:

I’ve heard a lot about the failed satire of this book, but found that the satire this book attempts is something the author reflects on through one of the character’s relationships with a particular magazine feature:

“She dug up the dog-eared issue again, approaching it with the sort of hip irony that permits one to simultaneously be a part of it and make fun of it without contradiction.”

I wouldn’t call it failed, merely self-aware enough to understand the irony of the author satirizing a group she exists within—a group that seems to be the target audience for this book.