The Hypothetical Girl
By Elizabeth Cohen
256 pages;
Other Press
What if you could be yourself and, at the same time,
also anyone else you ever dreamed of? That's the question behind this
collection of stories that reveals the humor, hope, woe and, most of all,
imagination involved in online dating and the requisite profiles. There's the
couple that fall in love via witty, sparkling emails only to meet and flee from
each other in a coffee shop, then reunite down the road. There's the couple
that keep catching each other in various lies (she's a minor actress, no, a
waitress; he's an Icelandic yak farmer, no, a policeman) only to decide to
preserve their relationship by never
telling the truth. Clearly, this book is about the state of modern romance,
but it's also about our timeless fascination with identity—a weighty
subject that Cohen handles with intelligence and a dash of much-needed
whimsical comedy. Case in point: the chat session between a polar bear and deer
who "met on thosestupidhumans.com" that will unexpectedly move you,
thanks to each animal's yearning—despite differences between their
species—for some all-too-human understanding.
— Leigh Newman