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Breakups

Personal History

My Adventures in Deconstruction

A college affair turns coming of age into coming apart.
The Front Row

“Petite Solange,” Reviewed: A Modernist Melodrama Mines the Power of the Female Gaze

Axelle Ropert’s powerful new drama traces the breakdown of a marriage and of a young girl’s self-perception.
The New Yorker Interview

James Acaster Doesn’t Need Your Sympathy

The British comedian has turned his breakups and breakdowns into material. But his real subject is the nature of standup itself. 
Shouts & Murmurs

A Breakup Letter from the U.S. Government to Big Oil

I should have left you after the first oil spill.
Shouts & Murmurs

How to Know When You’re Over Your Ex

It turns out that the breakup was just the motivation that I needed to ruin other aspects of my life.
Shouts & Murmurs

Conversations with the Plant I Bought During My Big Breakup

Sometimes what you need is just a sympathetic ear. Other times you need a talking plant.
Pop Music

How Olivia Rodrigo Became Pop’s Brightest New Star

On “Sour,” Rodrigo delivers eleven semisweet songs, almost all of them about love gone wrong.
Shouts & Murmurs

Dating Material: Places You’ll Find My Hair, Six Months After We Break Up

I don’t know how that happened. I’m sorry.
Shouts & Murmurs

I Will No Longer Be Thinking of You, Unless I Hear from You Soon: Letters to My Exes

I watch your Instagram Stories and send emojis, and yet you don’t watch my Instagram Stories back.
Shouts & Murmurs

Dating Material: You Might Want to Sit Down for This

We’ve compiled a list of the most memorable breakup spots from our twenties, to help inspire the type of magical, dramatic ending that every couple deserves.
Shouts & Murmurs

The Environmental Impact of Breaking Up with Me

Shouts & Murmurs

It’s Not You

After I woke up as a bug, I realized that you don’t need a man if you have both male and female bug genitals.
Sketchpad

Things the New York City Blackout Couldn’t Stop

In this town, weed gets delivered, tourists bike drunk, and couples break up—with or without the lights on.
Culture Desk

Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” Is the Breakup Song for the Social-Media Age

Grande suggests that, if the ache is going to be out there online anyway, why not lay it bare for people to see and hear and meme?
Shouts & Murmurs

All-Purpose Nondisclosure Agreement

Fiction

The Coast of Leitrim

Shouts & Murmurs

Apple Emotional Support

It’s time for you to meet new people, so schedule an appointment at the Genius Bar. Every Genius is a great listener and will act interested in your problems for twelve to fifteen minutes!
Shouts & Murmurs

No Way to Say Goodbye

Shouts & Murmurs

The Thin Red Line of Breakups

Shouts & Murmurs

Post-Breakup Confessions