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Apartment (novel)Apartment is a 2020 novel by American author Teddy Wayne. Apartment is Wayne's 4th book. The story is set in 1996, and follows the relationship of two young men living in an apartment together while enrolled in Columbia University's M.F.A. writing program. The novel explores themes of masculinity, class, privilege, and loneliness.

The unnamed narrator is a New York University graduate, who is living in his great aunt's two-bedroom rent-stabilized apartment in Manhattan, after she has moved to New Jersey. The narrator meets Billy, a working class young man from a small town in Illinois, who is living in a basement storage room. The narrator offers Billy to live with him in the apartment rent-free, and in exchange Billy will clean the apartment and cook for the two of them. While the narrator's education exceeds his talent, the reverse is true for Billy, a fact recognized by both themselves and their classmates. While at first the relationship between the narrator and Billy is warm and symbiotic, midway through the book an accident quickly divides them, and finally an act of sabotage ends their relationship.

Apartment is a New York Times Editors' Choice, longlisted for the 2020 Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize, and one of Vogue.com�s "Best Books of 2020 So Far".

Plot
1996
The novel opens in August 1996 in New York City, where the narrator is enrolled in the Columbia University's prestigious Master of Fine Arts Writing program, and lives in a two-bedroom in Stuyvesant Town on the east side in Manhattan. The apartment is especially desirable because it's rent-stabilized, whereas most rents in Manhattan are exceedingly high. The narrator is however subletting illegally in the apartment, since the lease is under his great aunt's name, who has since moved to New Jersey.

During a writing workshop, the professor and other students criticize the narrator's writing, but one student, Billy Campbell, defends him. The narrator later meets Billy at a bar, and learns he is from a poor family, working as a bartender to make ends meet, and living in a storage room basement. The narrator offers his spare room at the apartment to Billy in exchange for Billy cooking a few nights a week. In addition, Billy agrees to clean the apartment once a week.

With minor disagreements, the narrator and Billy's relationship is warm at first. The narrator greatly admires Billy's writing talent, charisma, handsomeness, and success with women.

In December, the narrator and Billy take ecstasy with 2 women. The narrator accidentally touches Billy in a sexual manner, and Billy abruptly leaves. After this experience, Billy becomes cold and distant toward the narrator.

1997
During the next semester, another professor praises Billy's work while criticizing the narrator's. That night at the apartment, Billy hints that the narrator's writing is more "accountant-like" than "artist".

The MFA students receive a letter that a 00 stipend is available for a rising second-year student, and applications need to submit a writing sample to apply. The narrator learns Billy plans to apply, and will presumably be able to move out of their shared apartment if he wins.

Billy begins to spend more time with other friends, and less with the narrator. The resentment between the two becomes more apparent. After feeling economically used by Billy, the narrator asks Billy to clean the bathroom. At a Super Bowl party, Billy mocks the narrator for never having a "real job" in front of several people. That night the narrator returns to the apartment, and dumps Billy's file cabinet and computer into the East River to prevent Billy from winning the stipend. To cover his tracks, the narrator tries to make the situation look like a burglary.

Billy returns to apartment shocked to find his computer and file cabinet missing, and convinces the reluctant narrator to file a claim through his great aunt's renter's insurance. The insurance company requires the police to be contacted in order to process the claim. The two agree that Billy will talk to the police alone.

After the semester concludes, the narrator receives a letter from his landlord ordering him to vacate the apartment since he is in violation of the lease for illegal subletting. Billy states that he admitted to the police he was living there illegally after being accused of falsely reporting an insurance claim. Billy tells the narrator he knows he staged the burglary to sabotage him, and that he plans to move out to live with two other classmates.

While the narrator is not charged criminally, the insurance company finds out and penalizes him thousands of dollars. As a result, the narrator's father stops paying his tuition. The narrator decides to drop out of school, move into another apartment with 3 other roommates, and work as a freelance copy editor.

After
The narrator is eventually is hired on full-time. Believing he will never be an author, he declines to reenroll at Columbia. He is later promoted to copy chief of the magazine, but lives a life of solitude.

Billy becomes a midlist author and a professor at an Idaho university. He lives with his wife and children.

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