"Opening Theory," by Sally Rooney
Part of Rooney's novel Intermezzo (slated to come out in September 2024 from Farrar, Straus & Giroux); in the July 8th & 15th issue of The New Yorker and read by the author on their podcast The Writer's Voice (read or listen online if you're a subscriber)
Several thousand words
Gosh, I love this. I was just rooting really hard for them to connect, almost from square one. Their inner monologues are so similar, not to the extent that I got their voices confused (and of course their being "he" and "she" helps differentiate their points of view), just that they share a nervous preoccupation with what Margaret calls "social nuances"! Margaret is fairly good at navigating those nuances in real time (her attractiveness probably helps), Ivan is less good and less confident at it, and yet they have so many feelings in common. Margaret's baffling sense of freedom at the end is well drawn.
I also find the title wonderfully clever. Though I'll admit I was waiting a while for chess openings to come up explicitly as a topic---for elegance' sake.
Some novel excerpts just make really good stories.
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