The Itty Bitty Titty Committee - Richard Lowe

For two years, four women meet every Thursday night at Thessaly, a Greek restaurant on a block that is slowly changing around it. Jo is a barista and standup comedian who has learned to make everything funny, including the things that aren't, her mother, her fear of being known, the way she reaches for the joke before she can stop herself. Mara is an athletic trainer who has built her body into armor and is only beginning to learn what it costs to let people drive her to appointments, to send a meme when the morning is hard, to call someone from a parking lot and stay on the line. Lila is an indie designer who has spent thirty-two years being told she is scattered, dreamy, too much, and has just learned there is a name for the way her brain works, and that needing structure is engineering, not failure. Pri is a sociology PhD candidate who can explain human behavior with precision and understands almost none of her own, including why she takes things she could simply buy, and what she is trying to fill.

They play Hearts. They eat. They say the things they cannot say anywhere else. Over two years of Thursdays they tell each other about cancer diagnoses and failed job searches, about the man who doesn't ask about the work, about what happened when she was twelve. The table holds all of it. The restaurant holds the table.

When Thessaly files for bankruptcy and closes its doors, the four women must reckon with what two years of Thursday nights have made them to each other, and who they will be without the room that held them.

The Itty Bitty Titty Committee is a novel about female friendship, the cost of being known, and the specific grief of losing a place that was yours.