While satire was a genre commonplace in pre-revolutionary France, it’s less so nowadays – or so one would think. The recently released “A Very Recent History: An Entirely Factual Account of a Year (c. AD 2009) in a Large City” by Choire Sicha may have a long title, but its message is succinct.

Told from a perspective 
simultaneously intimate and separated, the nonfiction piece pools together the experiences of young men in “the City,” which one can assume to be New York City, while exploring various habits and institutions of the twenty-first century.

The book explores issues such as animal cruelty, with a note of humor resonating as Sicha tells the reader how the ivory trade is by far the most detestable 
treatment of animals while eating eggs the least horrible. The book expands to higher topics such as marriage and religion as the detached, alien narrator provides the reader with a new perspective about the world we very much still live in.

For those still not sold on social commentary, especially from those pieces being published by the rising feminist sector, this book offers a good introduction to the world of political critique. The book is not likely to offend, but will merely provide the reader with a text of ideas to mull over. It is especially relevant to college students because it follows men who have only recently graduated college and their exploits in the 
“real world.”

“A Very Recent History” is no masterpiece, but it is brilliant.