Hope by Andrew Ridker

Author:Andrew Ridker [Ridker, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2023-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

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Cressida started Monday’s meeting with an announcement that their parent company, McLuhan, Inc., was officially in talks to sell Dunning Kruger to Beijing Mobile, a Chinese telecom company. “I’m sure you all have questions,” she said in a steely voice that bore no trace of grief, “but for the time being, I can only tell you that we intend to operate independently of Beijing Mobile, without Chinese interference, and that we will remain, in a very meaningful sense, an American company. We will continue to publish conversation-defining books from a wide variety of voices, but we will do so with the support and distribution channels of the world’s second-largest economy.”

With that, Cressida knit her fingers and looked around the conference table as if daring her colleagues to express their dissent. She fielded questions for the next few minutes, but Maya was too nervous about William’s novel to pay close attention to the conversation. If Cressida hated it, as Maya thought she would, her future at the company was shot. But if Cressida actually liked the manuscript, Maya would be tasked with editing the man she was already sleeping with on company time, which seemed, at best, like a bad career move.

“Now,” Cressida said, “let’s see what’s on the docket. Maya? Would you like to lead off?”

Maya sat on her shaking hands. “I have this novel in from an old friend,” she said, trying to sound noncommittal. “I thought it was . . . interesting. I’m eager to hear what everyone thinks.”

“Can I start?” Lucy said, tucking her hair behind her ears. “The opening was strong, and I thought the mom was great, but apart from her, I didn’t see myself in any of the characters.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Cressida said. “We’re asked to pity—what’s his name, William?—but it’s almost impossible to do so when so many of his problems are his own fault.”

“All good points,” Maya said, relaxing her shoulders. She pulled her hands, damp with sweat, out from under her legs. Now she wouldn’t have to work with William, and she could tell him that she’d honestly tried. “I’ll let him know we won’t be pursuing it further.”

“Who’s the hero here?” Lucy asked. “I mean, who am I supposed to be rooting for?”

“It’s a lot to ask a reader to spend three hundred pages with someone so unpleasant,” Rebecca said.

“Got it,” Maya said. “I’ll let the author know.”

“We should talk about the student-teacher thing,” Rebecca said.

Her comment piqued Malcolm’s interest. “What student-teacher thing?”

“There’s a very upsetting section near the end where the protagonist seduces one of his students.”

Lucy shivered with disgust. “A seventeen-year-old. A child.”

“I don’t know if I’d call her a child . . .” Maya said.

“I kept waiting for the author to acknowledge that what the character was doing is wrong,” said Rebecca, who had recently published a successful novel about a woman who slaughters, cooks, and eats her ex-boyfriends.

“I’m not sure he does know,” Lucy said. “He named the character after himself!”

“What about the girl?” Malcolm asked.

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