Each week I review the short fiction in a recent issue of The New Yorker . I learned it from watching you, Dad! I learned it from watching you. Issue: May 20, 2013 Story: The Dark Arts Author: Ben Marcus Plot: A young man, Julian, with a chronic autoimmune disease spends a short period of time in Dusseldorf , Germany. It is the final leg of a medical tourism trip throughout western Europe with his girlfriend, Hayley. He and Hayley have had a fight at some point prior, and he has come to Dusseldorf alone. He waits for her while he goes to a clinic every day for his treatments. Finally, she shows up. Review: This is a difficult story to unpack. It takes place almost completely in Julian's mind, as he interprets everything about his life -- his illness, his surroundings, his memories, his conversations with this father, his relationship with Hayley, even his very existence -- through the lens of his depression. And Julian's is truly a manifold and dizzyingly hopeless
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