Sweetbitter: A novel

Suggested Reading Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain In the Drink by Kate Christensen Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr Complete Poems and Selected Letters of John Keats by John Keats Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller Down and Out

“Aging is peculiar,” she said, moving a piece of parsnip around the plate with her fork. “I don’t think you should be lied to about it. You have a moment of relevancy—when the books, clothes, bars, technology—when everything is speaking directly to you, expressing you exactly. You move toward the edge of the circle and then you’re abruptly outside

When you can’t see in front of you life is nothing but surprises. Looking back, there were truly so few of them.

She dropped a record-player needle into place, and jazz startled the room into the present tense.

Their innate hospitality. Their anticipation of others’ needs. That was when service went from an illusion to a true expression of compassion.

You were a compendium of disposable information that people burned up while they drank and escaped their lives.

It is a strange pressure to be across from a man who wants something that you don’t want to give. It’s like standing in a forceful current, which at first you think is not too strong, but the longer you stand, the more tired you become, the harder it is to stay upright.

First you must relearn your senses. Your senses are never inaccurate—it’s your ideas that can be false.”

A dagger of morning prowled outside the open windows. The