Great American Novel Sent: Thursday, March 8, 2019 10:33 PM Subject: Hey Dear Mia, I’ve written a novel. I know it’s been years since we last spoke, but I would really appreciate some feedback. I’ve attached the first chapter below. Best wishes, James Chapter One: Mia. It was a dark night. Cold. Too cold. The type of night where the only place to be is in bed with your wife or in bed with your best friend’s wife. This was the night that James first met Mia. It was one of those fancy shindigs. There were women there, though such distractions had never been of much interest to James. You see, James was unlike any man this town had ever seen: tall, dark, handsome in that cool-yet-emotionally-unavailable way. When he wasn’t listening to Neko Case on vinyl or training for the upcoming war, locals often spotted him at the marina, tossing lit cigarettes into the water. It would not be an exaggeration to say that every woman in this town was madly in love with him, though few even knew his name. Even fewer knew his story. Casually stationed in the liminal space between the rich socialites and the petty wannabes, James sipped cognac from a glass, quietly pondering the absurdity of
32 Pillars of Salt
