Mrs Fletcher • The New Yorker
Tom Perrotta’s latest novel, “Mrs. Fletcher,” studies the reshaping of American erotic life by technology. •
n his freshman year of college, Brendan, one of a handful of characters at the center of Tom Perrotta’s new novel, “Mrs. Fletcher,” finds out that his image has been incorporated into another student’s art project. Titled “My Call-Out Wall,” the work provides the artist’s friends with the chance to “call someone out for behavior that damages our community and threatens our safety.” Some of the targets stand accused of classic sins (“LIES RIGHT TO YOUR FACE”), while others have committed more newfangled transgressions (“CULTURAL APPROPRIATOR,” “GASLIGHTER”). Under the painted portrait of Brendan, however, appears a phrase that he considers “a brief summary of my entire life”: “HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT.”