Excerpt:

I was in New York for the long weekend visiting three friends: Archibald, my neighbour from Louisiana, now an investment banker, Elodie, a high school exchange student from France who was now at NYU, and Cameron, Wendall’s friend’s daughter, a Hamiltonian now designing sneakers out of a loft in Fort Green.
What were they all doing here? The city, such a nexus, such a positive-spin black hole. It drew them in, and they never came back.
First: Archibald. He uses his whole name now because it’s good to be serious when you work with money. Even better than being serious is showing other people how serious you are. I would never trust someone named Brad with my money. If I had any money, I would give it to someone named Archibald.

***

Gary’s best friends are James, Yannick, and Ollie. I don’t know what to say about them. They wear brightly coloured sweaters, tight black jeans, and oversized sneakers that make their feet look like marshmallows that have been flattened at the bottom from being walked in or on or whatever you do when you wear marshmallows.

***

This is a true thing about me: I love chimps, and I love them most of all in their natural setting. I have no patience for chimps in other settings. I have surveyed the zoos of the world and decided for myself which ones I would be willing to patronize. I decide this based on the chimpanzee enclosure.
“Oh, come on, it’s probably fun for the little guy, being on a scooter.” He was looking at me with that cocked eyebrow again, but it was more teasing this time, almost incredulously so.
“But we can’t know, right? I mean it’s a video clip. I don’t know. It just makes me uncomfortable. They’re our closest relatives and we treat them so badly!”
He picked up his water glass (our other, more sophisticated beverages had yet to arrive) and, before putting it to his lips, muttered, “do you actually believe that?”
I let him have his drink and turn his attention back towards me. I waited for the smile.
“What do you mean do I believe that? Believe what?”
“That chimps and humans are related.”
“It’s not a belief. It’s a thing that is.”
Now both his eyebrows were raised.
“What? You don’t?” I was gripping the edge of the table. Surely this was a joke. This was an elaborate joke and then we’d sneak into the washroom and make out and make monkey sex jokes or something
“No, actually, I don’t.”
“You don’t?”

***