Herself When She's Missing A Novel

The story opens with Jordan’s sudden and ubiquitous return to Andrea’s life. Andrea’s the one who dubbed Jordan “the Criminal Mastermind,” so she’s fully aware of the farce (a beguiling, attractive, spellbinding farce) that is Jordan, yet she is completely unable to let go. The first time Jordan left her, Andrea fled Los Angeles for Chicago, swearing she’d never look back. When Jordan makes her way to the Midwest, plopping herself at Andrea’s door and claiming she’s become selfless, they go to the movies. Meet Andrea: tightly wound, hotter than she gives herself credit for, mid-20s, teacher. Meet Jordan: a liar who believes her own lies, LA skinny, ocean eyes, early-40s, perpetual undergraduate student. When the two meet outside a concert, Andrea can’t believe her luck. It doesn’t take long for that luck to turn sour, however, as Jordan’s secrets– she’s married, she routinely steals money from her places of employment, she’s never told the story of her past the same way twice– undermine Andrea’s own identity. Told in lists, 3x5 cards, and even the occasional screenplay, this is a quirky, utterly memorable tale of a girl desperate to be loved. Like Blue Van Meer from Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Andrea uses minutiae and memory to structure reality. At a certain point we realize Andrea’s version might be completely unreliable– but we don’t care. She is as endearing as she is unstable, as charming as she is obsessive, and we can’t wait for her next list.

A writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sarah Terez Rosenblum freelances for publications and sites including Pop Matters, The Chicago Sun Times and The Shepherd Express. When not writing, Sarah supports herself as a figure model, spinning instructor and creative writing teacher at Chicago’s Story Studio. Inevitably one day she will find herself lecturing naked on a spinning bike. She’s kind of looking forward to it, actually.