‘I’m Glad About You,’ by Theresa Rebeck
February 12, 2016
By Elisabeth Egan | New York Times
Theresa Rebeck’s tale of two star-crossed Midwesterners passed my screen test with flying colors. You know the one — you have a little pocket of time (15 minutes in the eye doctor’s waiting room, three minutes while waiting for the coffee to perk), and you have a choice: You can check your phone or dip into a book. When you pick the book, you know you’re reading a winner. “I’m Glad About You” is one of these novels — and not because my Instagram feed is all avocado toast, all the time.
When we meet our main characters, Alison is an aspiring actress in New York City, where she endures the usual ingénue miseries, including dead-end auditions, annoying roommates and a dwindling bank account. Back in Cincinnati, Kyle has recently married a semi-stranger named Van and has embarked on a residency at a suburban pediatrics practice, a far cry from the third-world humanitarian clinic of his dreams. At the beginning of the novel, these high school sweethearts haven’t spoken to each other since their relationship finally petered out for the sixth or seventh time. The culprit: Kyle, for refusing to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh outside of marriage. (As we learn in florid detail, he didn’t manage to remain faithful to Roman Catholic doctrine before tying the knot with his new bride.)