Imperfect Pleasures | Adrian Nathan West
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes. New York Review Books, 136 pages. 2025. ON THE INSIDE COVER of the advanced reader’s edition of Zoe Dubno’s Happiness & Love, one finds in the title font the heading “Marketing & Publicity,” and beneath it the following list: NATIONAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN INDIE NEXT NOMINATION CAMPAIGN FOR SEPTEMBER 2025 “MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF FALL 2025” CAMPAIGN PREPUBLICATION BUZZ CAMPAIGN TARGETED ONLINE ADVERTISING VIDEO TRAILER BIG MOUTH MAILING AND MICROINFLUENCER OUTREACH GOODREADS PROMOTION S&S EMAIL PROMOTION SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION AUTHOR EVENTS IN NEW YORK I was dismayed to receive a finished copy and find that all this had been omitted; it is a loss, because this interweaving of art’s semblance and careerism is both the book’s subject and that which it epitomizes, so much so that it is less a novel than an artifact of the derangement of present-day literary culture in America. Dubno’s unnamed protagonist spends her