See Friendship
A Novel
Published on 22. May 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-0-06-337509-3 (ISBN)
Description
"A sharp and affecting meditation on the contours of friendship, the seams of our digital lives, and the elasticity of memory. Wickedly funny and deeply impactful. . . . It's a literal triumph."-Bryan Washington, author of Memorial and Lot
"Astonishingly intelligent. . . . A stunning first novel." -Brandon Taylor, author of The Late Americans
"At heart a millennial's take on grief-inflected nostalgia. . . . "See Friendship" rejects catharsis in favor of the diffuse grays of extended mourning. . . . The final chapter decenters Jacob in order to unfold outward - wonderfully so, like its own small metaphor of the internet. Gordon's smart novel on the warping effects of nostalgia and technology asks us to follow some Forsterian advice from a century ago: Only connect." - The New York Times Book Review
Critic Jeremy Gordon makes his literary debut with this whip-smart novel of contemporary fiction about a young man who learns the devastating truth behind his friend's death, propelling him on an odyssey of discovery into the nature of grief in the digital age, the meaning of friendship, and the limits of memory.
Amid the ongoing decimation of media, Jacob Goldberg, a culture writer in New York, knows what will save him: a podcast. And not just any podcast, but something that will demonstrate his singular thoughtfulness in an oversaturated, competitive market. When Jacob learns the true, tragic circumstances behind the mysterious death of Seth, one of his best friends from high school, his world is turned completely upside down. But when the dust settles, he realizes he has an idea worth digging into-a search for the truth about friendship and memory.
Of course, it's not so simple. Learning the truth-or at least, the beginning of it-sends Jacob spiraling. His increasing obsession ultimately leads him back home to Chicago in this complex coming of age story, where he tracks down Lee, a once up-and-coming musician who probably knew Seth best at the end of his life. As his investigation deepens, Jacob's drive to find out the truth-and whether there's a deeper story to be told about the fault lines of our memories, life and death on the internet, and the people we never forget-grows into a desperation to discover whether it even matters.
A poignant and funny work of literary fiction about grief, loneliness, memory, and the unique existential questions inherent to the digital age, See Friendship introduces a new voice in fiction-a writer known for his pitch-perfect cultural criticism, with a depth of literary talent.
"Astonishingly intelligent. . . . A stunning first novel." -Brandon Taylor, author of The Late Americans
"At heart a millennial's take on grief-inflected nostalgia. . . . "See Friendship" rejects catharsis in favor of the diffuse grays of extended mourning. . . . The final chapter decenters Jacob in order to unfold outward - wonderfully so, like its own small metaphor of the internet. Gordon's smart novel on the warping effects of nostalgia and technology asks us to follow some Forsterian advice from a century ago: Only connect." - The New York Times Book Review
Critic Jeremy Gordon makes his literary debut with this whip-smart novel of contemporary fiction about a young man who learns the devastating truth behind his friend's death, propelling him on an odyssey of discovery into the nature of grief in the digital age, the meaning of friendship, and the limits of memory.
Amid the ongoing decimation of media, Jacob Goldberg, a culture writer in New York, knows what will save him: a podcast. And not just any podcast, but something that will demonstrate his singular thoughtfulness in an oversaturated, competitive market. When Jacob learns the true, tragic circumstances behind the mysterious death of Seth, one of his best friends from high school, his world is turned completely upside down. But when the dust settles, he realizes he has an idea worth digging into-a search for the truth about friendship and memory.
Of course, it's not so simple. Learning the truth-or at least, the beginning of it-sends Jacob spiraling. His increasing obsession ultimately leads him back home to Chicago in this complex coming of age story, where he tracks down Lee, a once up-and-coming musician who probably knew Seth best at the end of his life. As his investigation deepens, Jacob's drive to find out the truth-and whether there's a deeper story to be told about the fault lines of our memories, life and death on the internet, and the people we never forget-grows into a desperation to discover whether it even matters.
A poignant and funny work of literary fiction about grief, loneliness, memory, and the unique existential questions inherent to the digital age, See Friendship introduces a new voice in fiction-a writer known for his pitch-perfect cultural criticism, with a depth of literary talent.
Reviews / Votes
"A wry, insightful debut about friendship and the Internet, ambition and embarrassment, and how well we can ever know one another." - Hua Hsu, author of Stay True"See Friendship perfectly captures grief in an era when our digital pasts make even the dead feel heartbreakingly present. With a propulsive voice and an intimate charm, Gordon explores love and memory and what is lost when we air them to an audience." - Lydia Fitzpatrick, author of Lights All Night Long
"A frequently funny meditation on memory and loss." - Kirkus Reviews
"Gordon, a nationally published critic himself, employs his best writing when he uses Jacob to riff on 21st-century cultural matters and during the book's moving final sequence. . . . A smart and rueful debut that offers a sly critique of the podcast industry and how some shows treat real humans as characters and their pain and insight as mere content. Recommended for readers of Patricia Lockwood and Lauren Oyler." - Library Journal
"Jeremy Gordon's writing is funny, poignant, and so, so alive. He's written a novel that's sophisticated in its questions-about friendship, memory, and our obligations to the past-but wise enough not to provide easy answers." - Erin Somers, author of Stay Up With Hugo Best
"At heart a millennial's take on grief-inflected nostalgia. . . . "See Friendship" rejects catharsis in favor of the diffuse grays of extended mourning. . . . The final chapter decenters Jacob in order to unfold outward - wonderfully so, like its own small metaphor of the internet. Gordon's smart novel on the warping effects of nostalgia and technology asks us to follow some Forsterian advice from a century ago: Only connect." - The New York Times Book Review
"Jeremy Gordon has written The Savage Detectives for the post-Facebook era. Wonderfully funny and astonishingly intelligent, See Friendship explores that painful impact of shame and secrecy as well as the slipperiness of memory. Gordon is a brilliant observer of a media industry, and with tremendous subtlety, he traces the effects of that industry from broad social currents down into the granularity of a single human life. A stunning first novel." - Brandon Taylor, author of The Late Americans and Filthy Animals
"Witty and gentle, large-hearted and urbane, Gordon's book simultaneously brings back and burnishes lost time in the same way hearing that album you loved best when you were seventeen does - the one that soundtracked your first love, the one you still know every word to. Sounding all the right notes, See Friendship is a wonderful debut." - Hermione Hoby, author of Virtue
"See Friendship is a lot like the internet-a dishy, highly addictive portal into the human psyche. Jeremy Gordon has written a tender debut about the enduring pull of adolescent friendships, how we grieve in the digital age, and the ever-shifting role of the writer in society. If America truly is 'on its way out,' as a barfly in the novel's opening argues, I'm grateful we have Gordon to make sense of the wreckage." - Ruth Madievsky, author of All-Night Pharmacy
"Both intimately confessional and bitingly observant, See Friendship is a propulsive unsolved mystery of a novel that investigates the unknowability of the lives we lead in the 21st century. An electrifying debut." - Elaine Hsieh Chou, author of Disorientation and Where Are You Really From
"A smart, biting meditation on grief and memory. At once a love story of friendship and a picaresque page-turner for the podcast generation, the novel is refreshingly humane in its portrait of the ongoing mystery of loss. See Friendship asks a confounding but inescapable question: Can we ever really know those we hold dear?" - Isle McElroy, author of People Collide
"Scathing and often funny. . . . Fans of Sam Lipsyte's Homeland ought to take a look." - Publishers Weekly
"See Friendship is mortifyingly funny on the vanities and insecurities of maintaining a contemporary writing career, and also disquieting and resonant on how one processes impermanence in a time of rabid documentation. A triumphant debut which is sharp, profound and tender at once." - Megan Nolan, author of Acts of Desperation
"Jeremy Gordon's See Friendship is a sharp and affecting meditation on the contours of friendship, the seams of our digital lives, and the elasticity of memory. In prose that's both wickedly funny and deeply impactful, Gordon has written a novel that dazzles and illuminates: from aging, to dying, to living and loving, See Friendship illuminates and explores the impossibility and joy of navigating modern life. It's a literal triumph." - Bryan Washington, author of Memorial and Lot
"It's rare to find a novel about the internet that's as enthralling as my iPhone-not to mention one that is this funny, confident, and genuinely moving. Technology may distort our sense of time, intimacy, and identity, but See Friendship depicts it all with refreshing clarity. I loved it." - Lauren Oyler, author of Fake Accounts
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 200 mm
Width: 133 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
218 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-06-337509-3 (9780063375093)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Jeremy Gordon's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Pitchfork, The Atlantic, and GQ. He was born in Chicago, and currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Jen. See Friendship is his first novel.