This is a story about An exterminator who meets a single mother with a young son. He falls for her but there’s work holding him back.
Author
Said Sayrafiezadeh
Publication
The New Yorker, May 5, 2025
Date Read
December 5, 2025
Techniques and Idiosyncrasies
A woman explores grief after having two sons commit suicide. The story has a lot of allegorical meaning and contextually related bits
Author
Yiyung Li
Publication
The New Yorker, March 17, 2025
Date Read
December 1, 2025
Lara’s Theme
A great story set in India and from the perspective of a younger brother who’s in the shadow of his academically talented older brother. There’s a great deal of artistry in the short story form with this story. There’s the brother who considers his younger brother to be sitting on the fence of life, asking him if he needs ice for his ass at one point. But the other characters in the story who are sedentary are more like artists and experts. The father’s saxophone teacher is one such expert.
Author
Madurai Vijay
Publication
The New Yorker, November 21, 2025
Date Read
November 23, 2025
Final Boy
Hilarious story with some incredible descriptions throughout. The main character is a freeloading writer living with a guy who’s also a freeloader. The narrator’s roommate overdoses in the bathtub and goes into a coma, which is really unfortunate timing for the narrator, seeing how the apartment owner is dead and their daughter returned from Belgium to sell it. Bummer.
They are an online therapist who reads prompts from AI to provide a personal touch, or a way to make the robot medicine more palatable, as the story suggests. That, and they write fan fiction about Charles in Charge. God, this was funny.
Author
Sam Lipsyte
Publication
The New Yorker, October 27, 2025
Date Read
October 30, 2025
The Pool
A quintessential suburban story about a man coming to terms with his new home and pool and the dangers they present. A bit of Carver in the pages.
Author
T. Coraghessan Boyle
Publication
The New Yorker, September 22, 2025
Date Read
October 30, 2025