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In Very Recent History, Choire Sicha, two-time editor of Gawker and cofounder of The Awl, manages to do three seemingly disparate things at once. First, he's written a kind of guide to our times for a visitor from far in the future. Our everyday life has never looked so foreign and strange. Second, he's taken readers on a gossipy, episodic romp through the romantic and erotic lives of a group of young gay men trying to find love and/or sex in New York City. Finally, and most impressively, Sicha has managed to describe, in frustrating detail, how unlivable New York has become to all but the most wealthy of its citizens. I've never read a book quite like this one. Utterly sui generis.