Guest recommendation: Luiza suggests a short story collection about human connection
Reward System — Jem Calder
Welcome to Reading Under the Radar, where every Tuesday you’ll receive a book recommendation right to your inbox that hasn’t hit any major lists or book clubs but definitely deserves to be read.
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This week is another guest recommendation on Reading Under the Radar, where I ask a fellow book friend about one of their favorite under-the-radar reads.
This week, welcome Luiza, who writes Read, Watch, Binge (a recommendation newsletter around weekly themes) and the Substacker (highlighting lesser-known newsletter writers who are doing great work). I particularly loved this issue of the Substacker and read every essay in it!
Without further ado, let’s jump into Luiza’s under-the-radar book recommendation!
Reward System by Jem Calder
What It’s About
Sally Rooney writes on the back cover of Reward System: “Reward System is an exhilarating and beautiful book by an extraordinarily gifted writer. Reading these stories, I found myself thinking newly and differently about contemporary life.”
I felt exactly the same way. Each of the six stories was satisfying to read, even if they differed in size, form, and points of view. They don’t exactly add up to a novella, but there is continuity through one common thread in all the stories: our need to connect with others and how our current societies fail us in that respect. Jem Calder explores how social media makes us both interconnected and lost in a disconnected modern world.
The author seems to be an observer of our contemporary, busy, big-city lives. He combines humor, grace, and acid cynicism. He makes office life fascinating in “Search Engine Optimization”; he can energize a desolate house party in “Better Off Alone”; and he describes loneliness and dissatisfaction in practically every story he writes, leaving the reader feeling understood — as his characters would say: seen.
He often depicts his characters as anxious about, as well as comforted by, the fact that apps are constantly tracking them. The characters’ embarrassing behaviors and feelings of inadequacy also make them very relatable. We are all also so lost that we can relate to them in a way that is difficult to explain. Only fiction can capture it.
Why You Should Read It
Reward System is for those that feel like the world around us doesn’t make much sense. Those who feel lost and anxious. And, most importantly, those who don't care about reading a book that is a compilation of stories and doesn’t have a neat beginning and end. Calder’s stories don’t really go anywhere — like life, and many relationships, of course. And that’s the point.
Many people are unaware of this book, which is truly under the radar. It is Jem Calder’s debut and only book to date. I’d love to read more of his books, so I hope he continues to write.
Thank you!
Thank you to Luiza for her recommendation, and be sure to go read some of her essays and recommendations, like this one on the endless cycle of content and this one on pushing through the middle hard part, even when we don’t want to.
Can’t get enough, or looking for a different recommendation? Browse the archives, or check out some popular past recommendations:
A woman falls in love with a ghost stuck on earth — can the relationship last?
Read a haunted house novel with a family crime at its center
A mom accidentally pretends to be a famous author and sort of gets away with it
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I’ve been really curious about this book! I’ll have to check it out now, thanks for sharing 💗