A precision-strike on the late millenial class, so targeted in its observations but so general in its reach. I am almost entirely the people described here. I enjoy the trappings of what I imagine high taste to be, the minimalism, the combining technology and creativity, the wanting to move to Berlin (which, I genuinely nearly did circa the age of 27), and all of that. The social circles that expand and contract, the places and times spent with those circles, the nagging feeling that there must be more meaning. Latronico takes all this and pours it into a never-named couple living initially in Berlin and then moving around, the prose efficient but still drolly humourous. Beyond the generational satire, though, is a small but magnified observation that has stuck with me since: I miss when Instagram was just peoples’ lunches and holiday photos. When I deleted Facebook and abandoned Twitter (2017 and 2022, respectively), I retreated into Instagram because it wasn’t full of links to doom-laden articles, videos of atrocities, political snark. It was about the people underneath. And now, as I idly doomscroll through Instagram stories, it’s the same thing. Maybe something will replace it. Maybe it’s a sign of great privilege that I can live my life not having to care on an intense level about these things going on in the world around me. But in just 120 pages, Latronico absolutely nails the kind of person I am and my cohort is. (Sidenote: in its opening chapter, Perfection uses a special edition of In Rainbows on vinyl being on display as a specific marker of a certain type of person/couple, but it must be assumed he is thinking of the bright, vibrant colours of the standard edition, rather than the greyscale charcoal drawings of the limited discbox edition. I hate that this is a thing I am commenting on here).