Well, Jeff is so successful that he has access to the first-class lounge and invites the narrator to wait out the flight with him in the luxury of first-class. Wilson’s personal expertise reveals itself when Cook sets foot in the art gallery, conveying the feeling of artistic alienation to readers. Ultimately, this is a story of sliding-door moments, a fate vs fickle-lottery of random events type battle that culminates in an ending well befitting it’s setup.

The novel’s cleverest trick is how he and Cook interrogate their roles as storyteller and audience . His fiction and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, StoryQuarterly, Quarterly West, and Best New American Voices, among other publications. After twenty years, two former classmates reunite while waiting on an airport lounge for a delayed flight. Spotting someone in difficulties, he went to the rescue of the swimmer who almost seemed to register him before being whisked off to hospital.I know this could lead to plenty of comments I will delete later but it just felt very much like a white guy book. I would have preferred to be given a slower, more thoughtful, and more revealing ending, but the one that he provides is powerful and, in retrospect, inevitable. As Jeff's tale progressed I really started to wonder where it was going and why he chose our narrator to relate the story to. Having rescued him from certain drowning others arrive on the scene and eventually he’s left alone, with no knowledge of the identity of the man he saved.

people also keep going on about the "spectacular" and "unexpected" ending of this book meanwhile i kept waiting for Jeff to be like "i brought you into this world, i can take you out again" from the very first page.

It is unclear why Jeff chose to tell his life story, given the story showing Jeff in a questionable moral light.