From Broken River:

The problem she was grappling with now, though, was this: the Irina who started writing this novel was the old one. The Irina who was trying to finish it was the new. Was such a collaboration even possible? Did new Irina even want to share a .doc with old Irina? The situation felt hopeless.

This reminds me of the principle that your closest collaborator is you, six months ago—and she doesn’t answer emails. Interesting to see this idea in a fictional context. Then again, fiction is just a form of simulated-data experimentation.

P.S. Lennon reviews Sedaris, which reminds me of my idea from many years ago that Sedaris, having run out of good material from his own life, should start interviewing other people and telling their stories. Sedaris is a great storyteller, and I don’t see why he needs to restrict himself to basing them on things that happened to him personally. Seems like a real missed opportunity.