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