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Commentary on “Apatheia”

Samuel Lawrence Sullivan

Apatheia is an excerpt from Lost in the Words of the Guru, my unpublished novel. The chapter follows Jane as she reflects on her mother’s passing, her father’s downward spiral, and the events that forced her to leave home. The excerpt takes place around the mid-way point of the story. Jane’s son, Hayden, has been posting quotes from his grandfather’s journals on social media, attracting the wrong kind of attention. Lost in the Words of the Guru is a story told by Herb & Jane—two opposing narrators through journal entries, emails, blog posts, and podcast scripts and explores the themes of toxic masculinity, how loneliness leads to extremism, and how our perception of the truth can be warped through our desire to belong.

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Samuel Sullivan is a writer, RPCV, educator, and communication skills coach based in the New York metro area. He holds an MFA in fiction writing from Fairfield University. His work has been featured in the New Plains Review. You can reach him at samuellawrencesullivan@gmail.com. You can follow him on X here.

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