The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky: A novel

Leda is a writer who gives up her dream of a Master’s degree and a job at a publishing house to move to California with her boyfriend. She gets engaged, then married, then has a daughter and stays at home to raise her.

The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky is a story about all of the mundane moments of a woman’s life, but framed in a way that highlights all of the exhausting ways women criticize themselves and each other. It’s about all of the ways that women sabotage themselves to be appealing to men and miss out on opportunities to be successful in order to be more likable.

This book is not about the literal plot, which moves at a glacial pace. Readers who write Leda off as whiny or immature are missing the point. The novel is about the choices Leda makes and what they mean for womanhood as a whole. With every moment of self-doubt and every missed chance at success, Leda reaffirms the book’s core truth: the fundamental condition of womanhood is loneliness.

The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky will be one of the most meaningful books you’ll read all year.