Lola

Lola is the first person narrator and main character of the novel. In the narrative present, she is engaged to her boyfriend Max, whom she refers to as Boots for the majority of the novel. They live together in New York City. After the magazine Modern Psychology, for which Lola was an editor, folded, Lola took a job with “a site called Radio New York” (12). At Radio New York, Lola farms out “bite-size nostalgia in the mode of lists of popular books and movies and podcasts” (12). Although she no longer works for Modern Psychology, she remains in contact with her former colleagues, including Clive, Vadis, and Zach. One night while the four are having dinner together, Lola unexpectedly runs into one of her ex-boyfriends Amos. The encounter suddenly awakens her memories, forcing her into an uncomfortable confrontation with her dating past.

Although Lola is in a definitively committed...