One of The Believer's Best Books of the Year: One woman's journey "[flailing] at art, love, and friendship" with absurd yet improbably poignant results. (O, The Oprah Magazine)

In twenty-four absurd, lyrical, and louche episodes, "Iris Smyles" weaves a modern odyssey of trying to find one's home in the world amid the pitfalls and insidious traps of adult life.

A wickedly funny picaresque touching on quantum physics, the Donner Party, arctic exploration, Greek mythology, Rocky I, II, V, IV, VI, and III respectively, and literary immortality, Dating Tips for the Unemployed is a wistful if wry ode to that awkward age-between birth and death-when you think you know what you want but aren't quite sure what you're doing.

For readers of Sarah Vowell and David Rakoff, tales from the life of "Iris Smyles," a young woman courting (and resisting) love and success, with absurd yet improbably poignant results. Stalled on the precipice of adulthood, Iris doesn't know where her life post-college will lead and, to be honest, it's not a primary concern. She's tried applying for jobs, she's dipped her toes into dating, and she's become Manhattan's resident expert at finding ways to distract herself from what she really wants to do. When she does sit down to write, what emerges are meditations on small talk, family, arctic exploration, cannibalism, quantum physics, literary immortality, etiquette guides, memory, dreams, loneliness, growing up and growing old; a refreshing blend of Proust and Holly Golightly, Iris covers it all. Evoking the screwball heroines of a bygone age as she finds herself often a little lost in her own, Iris relates hilarious and heartbreaking episodes. A mature book about immaturity, Dating Tips for the Unemployed is a wistful, melancholic, madcap and erudite picaresque about the miserable fun of trying to find a career, love, and yourself at home and abroad.

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