EVERYTHING'S FINE

A romance between a Black woman and a White man unfolds in an ever more polarized world.

Josh Hillyer and Jessica Jones, both gifted students and math prodigies, meet at college on the day of Obama's election when each is interviewed about the historic event. “I’m not convinced that now is the right time to entrust another tax and spend liberal with the economy,” says Josh, to Jess’ disgust, and the two will continue to disagree on everything every time they meet. She pins him as a boring preppie; he loves to push her buttons. Their sparky dynamic continues when both are hired by Goldman Sachs, where he is an overnight sensation and she is an angry outsider, mistaken for admin staff even when she tops the leaderboard. Rabess’ fascinating, complicated, discussionworthy debut follows the pair through the day of Trump’s inauguration, offering a nuanced and provocative treatment of the operation of race and politics in an intimate relationship. It would be easy to label this book an enemies-to-lovers rom-com of the Hepburn-Tracy genus, but that doesn’t capture the unconventional aspects of Rabess’ depiction of her characters. Flummoxed by Josh’s interest (is it “jungle fever,” as one of his friends suggests?), Jess proceeds on impulse. Rabess’ snappy writing captures Jess’ reaction to her desire for Josh: “She feels like one of those patients with an alcoholic anesthesiologist who gets the dosage wrong, so that even though they are meant to feel nothing, they end up feeling everything and can only lay in excruciating silence while their nerve endings erupt.” The author never allows us to completely dismiss Josh, a true believer in meritocracy and the market economy—though since we don’t get inside his head, it’s not clear why his devotion to Jess never inspires him to see the world through her eyes. Though the pacing is a bit frustrating in the last third of the book, don’t put it down. You cannot fully understand the meaning of the title until the last page.

A hot book on a hot topic, well worth reading and arguing about.