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I am so embarrassed. Let me explain.

I opened this book. Began reading.

And then.

I had this sense of déjà vu.

Why I asked myself does this all look familiar? Did I see a movie or a tv series? I looked it up. Yes, a tv series was made, but, long after I had already cancelled my Hulu subscription.

Maybe I am just imagining things.

I continued to read.

And then, I got smart.

I already read this book. Oh goodness! Have I read so many books, that I can’t even remember when I have already read a book?

I have a list of library books that I keep, but apparently this one wasn’t on it �� which could have to do with the fact that this book was a donation to my Little Free Library Shed.

So…I am embarrassed.

But…That doesn’t stop me from providing a review.

So…Here goes��

Toby Fleishman is a short, Jewish liver doctor who loves his kids, his job and his dating apps, in that order. He is recently divorced from Rachel, a social-climbing talent agent.

Toby seems a pretty decent person. Readers see him as a good dad, sweet, sometimes self-righteous about politics and work.

Our narrator, is Toby’s friend Elizabeth, whom he met during a college semester in Israel. Two decades later, she’s a stay-at-home mom in New Jersey. She used to be a staff writer for a men’s magazine, but now she is longing to write again, and longing for a story to tell. When Toby rekindles their friendship, she dives gleefully in to writing his story.

It appears that Toby and Elizabeth are talking, but he is too distracted by his dating apps to listen.

She has created this beautiful Tony for all to see, including him.

So�� After all this time and pages Elizabeth has been telling his story, he doesn’t even seem all that interested in being much of a friend to her.

As readers we are watching Toby’s ego balloon. His fervent scrolling and sexting begin to seem unsavory. Does he not see that the people on screen are real people?

And yet…It appears that the great trick of this book is that it cons the reader into siding with Toby. The author demonstrates how women get suckered into acquiescing to misogyny by suckering both narrator and reader �� and then showing us what she’s done.

What?!

Was it maddening? Were we moved? Annoyed? Grateful?

What do you think?