Surely rejection is one of life’s least appealing events, but it also may rank among its most entertaining. The proof is in Other People’s Rejection Letters: Relationship Enders, Career Killers, and 150 Other Letters You’ll be Glad You Didn’t Receive (available 5/11) —a lusciously laid out compendium of snubbery as delicious as it is heartbreaking.
The book, edited by Bill Shapiro (editor of previous VSL pick Other People’s Love Letters), contains scans and photographs of form letters, handwritten notes, text messages, Facebook walls, emails and Web chats, all addressed to rejected persons: applicants denied; employees laid off; admirers shunned; boyfriends dumped; mothers condemned; and grandmothers bumped. Look closely and you’ll even find some famous rejectees: A mocking publisher discards a Gertrude Stein submission, and Andy Warhol’s personalized gift to the Museum of Modern Art is denied due to “severely limited gallery and storage space.” So, written rejection really does seem to come to everyone…Still, it’s a lot more fun to read when it’s not addressed to you.
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