
Swipe Wright Too
Decoding the Disposable Heart
By Joel D. Bradley
The swipe continues. This time, Gail is holding the phone.
Three months after the events of Swipe Wright: Dating in the Age of the Disposable Heart, Frank and Gail are divorced.
Frank returns to his roots in Orange County while Gail begins a very different kind of reinvention in Sacramento. Governor Eve Apple has risen from San Francisco mayor to Governor of California, and Gail now finds herself inside Apple's 3E political machine—Empathy, Equity, and Electric Scooters.
But Sacramento isn't Gail's only new world.
After nearly twenty years with Frank, she is introduced to online dating.
The men look promising. At least the versions of them in the photographs do.
One profile shows hair. Another shows bald. Beard. Clean-shaven. Outdoorsman. Executive. Free spirit. Family man.
As Gail begins decoding the men behind the profiles, she is forced to confront a more difficult question:
How much of our identity is real—and how much is the version we want other people to see?
Themes
- Online dating from Gail's perspective
- Reinvention after divorce
- The multiple identities people present online
- Dating profiles versus reality
- A traditional Kansas upbringing meets progressive Sacramento
- Governor Eve Apple and the 3E political world
- Technology and human connection
- Authenticity versus personal branding
- Humor with an underlying sense of loss and loneliness