the travel agency cannot be killed
Which well-observed modern European romance will be this summer’s hit?
This edition is brought to you by the Substack must-read Embedded!
The race is on to see which book will be crowned as this summer’s version of Vincenzo Latronico’s Perfection. That is, whose cutting satire on a modern relationship between two Europeans will be the most on point? Judging by some recent reviews, Jem Calder’s I Want You To Be Happy sounds like the obvious comp, featuring a pair of east Londoners who own the same bookshop tote bag. Meanwhile, Danish writer Linea Maja Ernst’s Waist Deep has all the makings of the exact kind of comedy of manners that everyone in Brooklyn thinks they can write, and at a polyamorous scale, natch:
Seven adult friends spend a summer vacation hanging out in a country home. They talk, and talk, and talk. They prepare extravagant brunches and debate over elaborate dinners. They swim, they sunbathe, they tease — and their flirtations and frustrations run deep … Polyamory may be the plot device, but ennui is the engine.
(Note the way both reviews reference Sally Rooney, of course, as the ultimate maestro of the genre. Also, relevant to this ditty is this funny line from Oliver Traldi’s 2025 treatise on sex and monstrosity in pop culture: “Lowbrow fiction is good sex and highbrow fiction is bad sex” !).
I’m personally kicking off my post-Moby seasonal reading with Swiss prodigy Nelio Biedermann’s family epic Lázár, which apparently spent 29 weeks on the German bestseller list last fall. This was a choice mostly driven out of an evil hag-esque desire to find out how good a 22-year-old’s debut could really be, but perhaps your intentions are more pure! In any case, ‘tis the season for a Continental state of mind…
I like how “travel concierge” is just a resurrection of the concept of a travel agency — whether one that banks on AI, as in the case of Odessia; or institutional magazine editor credentials à la Pineapple (which Feed Me found out has an annual fee of $10,000, lol). Either way, everyone is clearly sick of booking their own trips (The Atlantic has a good piece particularly on why this summer’s airfares are simply so insane to deal with), much less researching where to go and what to do in an era of total recommendation overload.
While I have no doubt that travel concierge is an actual thing for like, getting Jacob Elordi and Kendall Jenner into Udon Shin, I think us non-actual-richies may just have to make peace with either having kinda basic vacations OR dedicating time to collate a critical mass of all the somewhat secret Google Docs floating around in one’s social ether OR agreeing that your friendly neighborhood freelancer’s strategy of paywalling a good trip is simply good business sense. Where’s that Deez Links Saigon starter pack landing again? Hmm…
Some media job postings worth a gander…
Story editor at NYT Magazine (base pay $125K-135K, seems kind of low considering they’re asking for 8+ years of editing experience “at a major publication or media organization”!)
Books reporter at WSJ (base pay $120K-150K — more than that editor job above?)
Culture intern at The Economist (London-based, £2,500 per month over three months) — peep the stern AI warning!
Editor-writer (first time I’ve seen that hyphenate in a posting, interesting) for CNN’s wellness section ($70K-130K)
Some stray links:
Now here was a real “you can just do things” kind of guy.
“Effective immediately, Grey Fiction is seeking writers active on social media to star in a series with the working title Group Chat. The series will follow the cast as they maintain a group chat following and commenting in real time on various happenings on the literary Internet, and in the literary world at large. Each episode will provide recaps of the chat’s activity over the past week, screenshots capturing the most memorable takes, tussles, and twists, and occasional unexpected surprises…” this is so funny as a concept because in this day and age…who’s doing all that publicly for free/not on a platform that benefits them directly?
Did you see that the former sales head at Condé Nast is starting what is essentially an IP company? At least someone still believes in short stories (even if mostly as a way to pressure-test material…)
Lauren Oyler’s AI boyfriend essay is here. It’s quite possibly her funniest work!
“He’s tried his hand at pottery, sculpting and even painting, but drawing has been his artistic home … He likes to draw medieval knights in his downtime, valiant warriors of the past who lived by a sense of honor. On this day, he observed a man dressed as Hamlet, a Danish prince whose mind was clouded by vengeance.” I’m telling you, I’m charmed, dammit. (Random John Wilkes Booth factoid/pun in there notwithstanding)
Finally: In New York on August 4? Come to Kathryn Jezer-Morton’s book launch at McNally Seaport and hang out with KJM and me!
A message from our partner:
Does it ever feel like social media is getting less and less ... human? In a web overrun with psyops, slop, hype, and hate, Embedded is your guide to what’s (still) good on the internet, by a real person on a quest to maintain a healthy, productive, and rewarding relationship to it. Whether writing about her fights with customer service bots, her husband treating her like Siri, or how she she managed to unplug from Twitter, Kate Lindsay consistently finds the bullseye in our messy feelings about living online.
And now, Embedded also includes media_gossip, a weekly edition with blind items, highlights from media parties, and insider takes on everything from Gawker nostalgia (bad) and profiles of Clavicular (good?). Plus there’s My Internet, our regular Q&A with cool people including Tavi Gevinson, Sam Kriss, and Scaachi Koul.