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Let Me Try Again: A Novel
A Romantic Tragicomedy of Faith, Family, and Folly
Ross, twenty-three, isn’t nearly as clever as he thinks he is. His brilliant idea to break up with his girlfriend, Lora Liamant, in an attempt to show her how terrible other men are and how empty life would be without him, has backfired spectacularly. Within weeks, he discovers she’s moved on with the brother of a famous network TV actor. In the midst of his heartbreak, Ross’s parents die tragically—in a helicopter crash at an all-inclusive resort in Turks and Caicos—leaving him with millions of dollars and custody over his teenage sister.
Traumatized, ruminating, and rich, Ross plots scheme after scheme to show Lora he’s changed into a responsible adult, even as she shows no indication of wanting that. Everything he does seems to make matters worse, as his misguided mission of self-transformation only leads to Lora’s confusion and dismay.
Let Me Try Again is an electric picaresque charting a young Jewish man’s spiral of neurotic pride and self-improvement within a culture that only caters to his worst impulses. Brimming with vitality and crackling with wit, Matthew Davis’s dynamic debut illuminates the absurdities of twenty-first-century life with ecstatic flair.
Ross, twenty-three, isn’t nearly as clever as he thinks he is. His brilliant idea to break up with his girlfriend, Lora Liamant, in an attempt to show her how terrible other men are and how empty life would be without him, has backfired spectacularly. Within weeks, he discovers she’s moved on with the brother of a famous network TV actor. In the midst of his heartbreak, Ross’s parents die tragically—in a helicopter crash at an all-inclusive resort in Turks and Caicos—leaving him with millions of dollars and custody over his teenage sister.
Traumatized, ruminating, and rich, Ross plots scheme after scheme to show Lora he’s changed into a responsible adult, even as she shows no indication of wanting that. Everything he does seems to make matters worse, as his misguided mission of self-transformation only leads to Lora’s confusion and dismay.
Let Me Try Again is an electric picaresque charting a young Jewish man’s spiral of neurotic pride and self-improvement within a culture that only caters to his worst impulses. Brimming with vitality and crackling with wit, Matthew Davis’s dynamic debut illuminates the absurdities of twenty-first-century life with ecstatic flair.
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First published August 13, 2024
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About the author
Matthew Davis
1 book71 followersNote: There are multiple authors in the GR system with this name. This profile is for Matthew^^^Davis, author of Let Me Try Again.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
May 7, 2024
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Let Me Try Again by Matthew Davis. The narrative is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of psychological and existential depth most of the themes will go over a typical reader's head. This neo-Freudian, trad cath, zoomer novel delves deeply into what it means to be alive today, intertwining modern existential dilemmas with a profound psychological exploration of its characters. There's also Ross's complex persona, which is deftly woven into his characterization—his personal evolution draws heavily from existential and Freudian literature, reflecting the nuanced struggles of contemporary life.
The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these characters, to realize that they're not just tragic—they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence, people who dislike "Let Me Try Again" truly ARE idiots—of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the existential nuance in Ross’s actions, which themselves are a cryptic reference to the human condition explored in literary classics. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Matthew Davis’s genius unfolds itself on the pages of their books. What fools... how I pity them. 😂
And yes, by the way, I DO have a "Let Me Try Again" tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only— and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid 😎
The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these characters, to realize that they're not just tragic—they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence, people who dislike "Let Me Try Again" truly ARE idiots—of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the existential nuance in Ross’s actions, which themselves are a cryptic reference to the human condition explored in literary classics. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Matthew Davis’s genius unfolds itself on the pages of their books. What fools... how I pity them. 😂
And yes, by the way, I DO have a "Let Me Try Again" tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only— and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid 😎
August 14, 2024
On page 1, the author contemplates blowing his brains out.
On pages 2-288, he makes the wrong decision.
On pages 2-288, he makes the wrong decision.
July 30, 2025
4 for Sluggishness
Let’s say Ross is a rich spoiled brat with OSD,AuDHD(combination of ADHD and autism)and Narcissistic personality disorders . Which there are numerous signs scattered throughout the book revealing chapter by chapter.There’s even solid evidence of it ,his doctor’s remark :
“I think …” He paused to reach into a little satchel next to his seat, letting out another pain-filled grunt, “I think I’m going to write you a prescription for thirty Vyvanse, and sixty Adderall.”
Some random girl who knows herself a neurotypical woman but about Ross
she says : “You don’t suffer, you don’t struggle. Everything is just some joke, there’s no consequence for men like you. It’s all just some big ironic joke. And I hate you for that.”
Ross contemplates his own identity : “Typical, idiotic, forgetful Ross. ”
One day his Therapist states :
“You’re suffering … from an awful ennui, Ross. Too privileged to have anything to complain about, so you complain about everything. Too unstimulated to get any pleasure out of everyday life.”
“Well that’s why I have you prescribing me stimulants every month.”
Ok ,Have we reached the end ?Is this the autobiography of a 23 Y/OL Guy who is first an idiot and then Rich with mentally unstable characteristics?by the way his Jewish.
OR ,Are we talking about a Gen-z over-thinker born into a world of gadgets ,High-Tech and YouTube,TikTok etc ,raised by parents who genuinely cared and now living in 2024? despite the fact that he is an handsome Nurse and affluent guy who suffocated by brands he faces existential dilemmas . (There’s a possibility of becoming a knife user while reading it😬just move on )
The whole point is
Do you(as a reader) relate to? Do u think you’re a neurotypical person and still can’t find yourself in any pages?.
🌸🌸🌸
Some Quotes:
“They will deny anything they find inconvenient, and then call you crazy. It’s called gaslighting.”
“In an effort to seem spontaneous, low maintenance, unautistic, well adjusted, etc, etc, I flew back to New York a few days later without telling Lora.”
“You’d never see me saying to people, “Oh, you know how to take someone’s temperature and blood pressure, and then get the doctor to come in, right?” Of course not! That would be rude. It would be showing off that I was a registered nurse. We nurses have some “honor; computer scientists like Don Morton just can’t help themselves.”
“That’s wrong. You don’t need to believe in God to know that it’s wrong to hurt people.”
I was prepared to parry this utilitarian objection, “Okay, so Markie is making a utilitarian argument. That racism is wrong, objectively, because it hurts people. But if we could quantify the amount that it harms people, then we could also quantify … the amount that some other group benefits from it. Imagine, a world … with two ethnic groups, ‘A’ and ‘B’
A despises group B, and there are only like … a thousand members of group B, versus like a billion of A. And it’s just super culturally ingrained, that everyone in group A really hates the members of B. And another interesting cultural fact, is that B is known for horrible clinical depression. All one thousand members are pretty much medically incapable of feeling happiness. So in this scenario, if some member of A, let’s call him ‘A’ Dolph,” a few chuckles, “decides to kill every member of B. So now, everyone from B is dead, and the total number of smiles, is up, people are happier, and more satisfied as a whole now that the members of this minority group have been wiped off the earth. So was that morally good”?
Let’s say Ross is a rich spoiled brat with OSD,AuDHD(combination of ADHD and autism)and Narcissistic personality disorders . Which there are numerous signs scattered throughout the book revealing chapter by chapter.There’s even solid evidence of it ,his doctor’s remark :
“I think …” He paused to reach into a little satchel next to his seat, letting out another pain-filled grunt, “I think I’m going to write you a prescription for thirty Vyvanse, and sixty Adderall.”
Some random girl who knows herself a neurotypical woman but about Ross
she says : “You don’t suffer, you don’t struggle. Everything is just some joke, there’s no consequence for men like you. It’s all just some big ironic joke. And I hate you for that.”
Ross contemplates his own identity : “Typical, idiotic, forgetful Ross. ”
One day his Therapist states :
“You’re suffering … from an awful ennui, Ross. Too privileged to have anything to complain about, so you complain about everything. Too unstimulated to get any pleasure out of everyday life.”
“Well that’s why I have you prescribing me stimulants every month.”
Ok ,Have we reached the end ?Is this the autobiography of a 23 Y/OL Guy who is first an idiot and then Rich with mentally unstable characteristics?by the way his Jewish.
OR ,Are we talking about a Gen-z over-thinker born into a world of gadgets ,High-Tech and YouTube,TikTok etc ,raised by parents who genuinely cared and now living in 2024? despite the fact that he is an handsome Nurse and affluent guy who suffocated by brands he faces existential dilemmas . (There’s a possibility of becoming a knife user while reading it😬just move on )
The whole point is
Do you(as a reader) relate to? Do u think you’re a neurotypical person and still can’t find yourself in any pages?.
🌸🌸🌸
Some Quotes:
“They will deny anything they find inconvenient, and then call you crazy. It’s called gaslighting.”
“In an effort to seem spontaneous, low maintenance, unautistic, well adjusted, etc, etc, I flew back to New York a few days later without telling Lora.”
“You’d never see me saying to people, “Oh, you know how to take someone’s temperature and blood pressure, and then get the doctor to come in, right?” Of course not! That would be rude. It would be showing off that I was a registered nurse. We nurses have some “honor; computer scientists like Don Morton just can’t help themselves.”
“That’s wrong. You don’t need to believe in God to know that it’s wrong to hurt people.”
I was prepared to parry this utilitarian objection, “Okay, so Markie is making a utilitarian argument. That racism is wrong, objectively, because it hurts people. But if we could quantify the amount that it harms people, then we could also quantify … the amount that some other group benefits from it. Imagine, a world … with two ethnic groups, ‘A’ and ‘B’
A despises group B, and there are only like … a thousand members of group B, versus like a billion of A. And it’s just super culturally ingrained, that everyone in group A really hates the members of B. And another interesting cultural fact, is that B is known for horrible clinical depression. All one thousand members are pretty much medically incapable of feeling happiness. So in this scenario, if some member of A, let’s call him ‘A’ Dolph,” a few chuckles, “decides to kill every member of B. So now, everyone from B is dead, and the total number of smiles, is up, people are happier, and more satisfied as a whole now that the members of this minority group have been wiped off the earth. So was that morally good”?
March 12, 2025
this is what if patrick bateman was autistic.
i really enjoyed this until i didn't. it was funny and witty and smart and then it just felt like it was trying too hard to be all of those things. disappointing bc i had wanted to read this for months
i really enjoyed this until i didn't. it was funny and witty and smart and then it just felt like it was trying too hard to be all of those things. disappointing bc i had wanted to read this for months
September 30, 2024
Will be MISTAKENLY left off of Best-of-2024 lists but DESERVES to be in all of them—and at least in the top five and above Intermezzo, etc. I'm serious, you're missing OUT if you don't read this—I even created an entire BOOK CLUB just to force people to read it with me.
April 23, 2024
I was standing on business in Midtown East last week, overlooking the nearest East river, and picked up a review copy of this extremely funny Freudian Trad Cath (hyphen Jewish) novel via Skyhorse. I was immediately engrossed in the life of plucky single father Ross Mathcamp and soon saw shades of John Kennedy Toole's Ignatius, one of my favorite characters in fiction. I understand, however, that author (sweet Matthew) Davis was unfamiliar with the aforementioned Aardappeleter's work until AFTER having written this delectable nugget. Just two days later, I caught myself red handed, dead to rights, having devoured the story of poor Ross. It had tremendous juice, and I encourage all readers, including women of color, to read it as soon as they can, likely at the tail end of the upcoming Summer of Freud.
October 23, 2024
funny at first then i just wanted to stop being in a boy’s mind 😭
April 19, 2025
Amazing for my name to be in a book and the ending is really good
Read
March 28, 2025First I read a book where a guy can’t get any because he is Jewish, then one where a guy can’t get any because he is Asian, then I read one where the guy doesn’t get any because he is ugly, and then I read one where the guy thinks he can’t get any because he is Jewish but it’s actually because of his personality.
They actually don’t have these kinds of books in Christchurch! Everyone there is getting some. Yep, I love the big city, finally I’m part of something
The book is very smarmy and funny and fun
They actually don’t have these kinds of books in Christchurch! Everyone there is getting some. Yep, I love the big city, finally I’m part of something
The book is very smarmy and funny and fun
November 13, 2024
God this book was so funny and true and also just so infuriatingly neurotic gen Z smartypants but it was good and you should read it
June 20, 2024
Wow! A great debut novel. Similar to “My Year of Rest and Relaxation,” as both act as almost depressive fantastic novels. The character Ross seems unlikable at first, but keep reading. He development over the course of the novel makes him a relatable, if flawed, protagonist. The story is interesting and moves quickly, and the book is philosophical without taking itself too seriously. A must-read for the summer/fall.
May 20, 2024
idk what the finish edit looks like but it’s mad funny tho
August 5, 2025
Get a grip my guy.
Read
October 13, 2024 I wanted to stay in the loop. But I was on oxy the entire time I read it I have no idea how to rwate this novel
September 26, 2025
Love love love. So funny and mental. Reminded me of Gary Shytngart + Melissa Broder
November 28, 2024
I cannot understand the praise for this book. I hated it so much I couldn't finish it. The writing was annoying and hard to read, the character was annoying and impossible to relate to, and while it may be diagnostic of a sick society it was also diagnostic of things I hate. This book, mostly.
September 2, 2024
She did abominable things to a total Jewish stranger.
September 27, 2024
Really great book, very smart and funny. The protagonist reminds me of a number of secular Jewish autistic neurotic types who torture themselves largely about women.
Reminds me a bit of a millennial David Foster Wallace, protagonists are neurotic to the extreme and every comically absurd thought no matter how unflattering really comes to life.
The character also reminds me of Mark Corrigan with all his scheming to get what he wants at any costs. He is moralistic enough to alienate his peers but is too narcissistic to be aware of his own moral failings which makes it ever more deliciously comical.
It is about a man who breaks up with his girlfriend hoping to change her by making her miserable in this absence which blows up in his face when she quickly moves on, dating and having casual sex which only serves to torture him.
The story largely is about all his hair brained schemes to change himself and win her back while never resolving the aspects of himself that pushed her away. He is also a man whose ego is largely dependent on her and others perspective on himself making him even more neurotic about his self loathing he had or any perceived slights.
This book also covers gender, morality, religion, self improvement, psychology, etc. I can't recommend it enough.
Also the person who was the voice actor for the novel was excellent his range of ethnic voices was superb to say the least, his Jewish voices were so realistic I felt like there was a real Jew in the room with me being amazingly neurotic.
This is an incredibly strong showing from a debut author and I'm totally blown away. I was thinking this books might be a bit lacking and take a while to finish but I sprinted through it in 2 days and I am still wanting more. I'm really looking forward to anything else he writes.
Reminds me a bit of a millennial David Foster Wallace, protagonists are neurotic to the extreme and every comically absurd thought no matter how unflattering really comes to life.
The character also reminds me of Mark Corrigan with all his scheming to get what he wants at any costs. He is moralistic enough to alienate his peers but is too narcissistic to be aware of his own moral failings which makes it ever more deliciously comical.
It is about a man who breaks up with his girlfriend hoping to change her by making her miserable in this absence which blows up in his face when she quickly moves on, dating and having casual sex which only serves to torture him.
The story largely is about all his hair brained schemes to change himself and win her back while never resolving the aspects of himself that pushed her away. He is also a man whose ego is largely dependent on her and others perspective on himself making him even more neurotic about his self loathing he had or any perceived slights.
This book also covers gender, morality, religion, self improvement, psychology, etc. I can't recommend it enough.
Also the person who was the voice actor for the novel was excellent his range of ethnic voices was superb to say the least, his Jewish voices were so realistic I felt like there was a real Jew in the room with me being amazingly neurotic.
This is an incredibly strong showing from a debut author and I'm totally blown away. I was thinking this books might be a bit lacking and take a while to finish but I sprinted through it in 2 days and I am still wanting more. I'm really looking forward to anything else he writes.
September 21, 2025
jedna z top 10 human experiences: čtyřhodinový let a žádný internet, metylfenidát, knížka pro terminálně online lidi a můj dimes square playlist (taky pro terminálně online lidi)
hitlo skoro stejně dobře jako čtení tao lina ve čtyři ráno a následné googlení “am i autistic online test adult psychometrically valid”
(o knížce vím z blogu Sama Krisse. he didn’t miss)
hitlo skoro stejně dobře jako čtení tao lina ve čtyři ráno a následné googlení “am i autistic online test adult psychometrically valid”
(o knížce vím z blogu Sama Krisse. he didn’t miss)
November 16, 2024
prepared for this to be terrible but it was strangely great
September 26, 2024
“My upbringing simply wouldn’t allow me to love any woman who didn’t treat me like her special little genius”
March 5, 2025
Very good high IQ Freudian Jewish Trad Cath novel by Matthew Davis.
Read
April 10, 2025If you understood any of the references in this book you may be entitled to government-mandated euthanasia
September 7, 2025
I found this extremely enjoyable. It's like a rehash of American Psycho with a bit more modern nuance and less of the murdering. A sort of ironic domestic Jewish American Psycho.
September 23, 2024
Very funny. So funny it made me fall in love with Matthew Davis and dm him on an app asking if I could send him naked photos of myself. He declined (weird/gay?) but I still give this 5 stars
November 19, 2024
Very fun and entertaining to read. What I like about Matthew's writing is his ability to highlight the absurd aspects of our current culture by only just barely satirizing them. Things like the Emeril VR experience are funny because they seem so dumb, but it also would not be surprising to see it announced for real in the news tomorrow.
September 12, 2024
i laughed a lot, which is more than you can say about most books. in fact, rarely can you ever say that you laughed at all, about any book, especially these days. sometimes the narrator could've laid off on all the tech and product names, and the occasional dimes square reference, but that's just my opinion, and i've been wrong before. i'm happy to see people writing real books again. and this is a real book. people have been making many comparisons to Roth but i think, just as much, he's got characteristics of Gore Vidal, and DFW, whom i both love. i'm excited to see more from Davis.
July 1, 2024
I met Matthew at a reading. It was a good reading, and he said the book is much better than what he read, so I’m basing this review on that information. He also was nice and a pretty chill dude.
December 29, 2024
Oh Ross, I wish I could personally blow your brains out for you.
Definitely among the top 5 of 2024, what a great read! The protagonist is so delightfully neurotic, it’s impossible to read more than a few pages without the strong urge to slap him. But oh what a relief to know he’s only 23, thank goodness for that, there’s plenty of room for personal growth!
Definitely among the top 5 of 2024, what a great read! The protagonist is so delightfully neurotic, it’s impossible to read more than a few pages without the strong urge to slap him. But oh what a relief to know he’s only 23, thank goodness for that, there’s plenty of room for personal growth!
Read
June 22, 2024my first time ever with an Advanced Reader Copy so i felt very mysterious and trickster-like reading this. book was enjoyable, i think i can safely say unlike other internet-era autofiction-adjacent works, with some pretty interesting commentary. may be a hit!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews