New Hire

On the morning of his fortieth birthday, Boswell W. Budge puts on a tie for the first time in his life. In this speculative future, citizens exist in blissful leisure until they reach middle age, at which point they must surrender their freedom and join the workforce. Bozzy inherits his position from Mr. Kojac, an older colleague departing the job with quiet relief, and navigates a world where work is treated as both punishment and privilege. His family celebrates his entry into employment as a milestone. His colleagues regard him with pity. And Bozzy himself feels only dread. Dryfoos constructs a sharply absurd premise and follows it to its logical, darkly comic conclusion, revealing the strange way societies construct meaning around labor and the arbitrary thresholds we use to mark the end of one life and the beginning of another. The ending lands with quiet resonance, leaving readers to wonder which world is truly the strange one: Bozzy's future, or our own.