The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

The paradox of choice can become a problem in online dating. With a prevalence of apps and a plethora of choices on those apps, some people struggle to make any decision at all, fearing the wrong choice. Others cannot settle down with the good choice they make, always looking for someone better. This is the plot of Gramazio's The Husbands, only the problem here isn't that Lauren can't stop swiping; instead, every time a husband enters her attic, a new one comes out.

This was initially big surprise for the single Lauren, who comes home tipsy from a bachelorette party to discover she has somehow acquired a husband. It takes a few trips up and down the attic stairs but she eventually figures out (sort of) what's happening, and eventually she delights in the opportunity to try out new men (and new lives -- each husband represents in effect an alternate universe). If one husband is too annoying or mean, she sends him up to the attic to fetch something and waits for the next one.

But after accidentally losing a husband she really liked, Lauren sets about trying to find the best husband, rapidly cycling though many of them as she sends them off to the attic for trivial faults, or because the world is a little too different from her original one, or because she can't shake off a general air of dissatisfaction. Rather than find the right life to settle into, however, she becomes increasingly lost and anxious -- the paradox of choice at its most extreme.

The parallels to online dating are obvious (hence my opening paragraph), but this is just one facet of a larger societal problem we have. As our technology advances and our ability to shape our lives and our environment increases, we become ever more focused on trying to make sure everything goes exactly as we want it to. Life doesn't work that way, though. No matter how much we might want to, we cannot control every outcome, we cannot plan for every eventuality, we cannot avoid suffering. It's a necessary part of being an adult to become comfortable with uncertainty, which is why I thought Gramazio's divisive ending to the story worked perfectly.