“She was working in a bridal shop in Flushing, Queens, till her boyfriend kicked her out in one of those crushing scenes.” So begins the theme song to The Nanny, Fran Drescher’s iconic American-Jewish sitcom. And it’s that alluded-to rejection that launches protagonist Fran Fine’s myriad adventures over the course of all six seasons: a job, a theatre-producer soul mate, and a lot of supercool outfits.

Along much the same lines, but two decades prior, the theme song to The Mary Tyler Moore Show asked, of Mary Richards, “How will you make it on your own?” Mary, you see, had just been dumped by her beau. The lyrics continue, leading up to the crux of the matter: “But it’s time you started living.” And reader, rest assured, Mary Richards does just that, swapping a not-good-enough-for-her lug for a Jewish best friend and a series of interchangeable 1970s men for that which Rhoda could not provide.

Classic romantic narratives involve men falling in love with beautiful women, and chasing those women until the women come around. So it’s subversive, in narration and maybe in politics, when the story begins with a woman getting dumped.

This is how I knew I’d be in for a great ride right from the start of If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You, Leigh Stein’s latest novel. It begins with a breakup scene the likes of which previous eras couldn’t have imagined. It is a (fictional) post on the (real) Reddit relationship advice forum, wherein a 44-year-old man lays out the reasons he wishes to cool things off with his 39-year-old girlfriend. It begins ominously: “My gf and I have been dating for 8 years, but I identify as a bachelor.” The pretense of anonymity is shattered when he provides the name of his girlfriend’s pet rabbit. (Owen Wilson, like the actor.) Not only does Dayna Lev, the dumpee, now know exactly what was on her now-ex’s mind when contemplating ending things, but everyone who knows them will as well. Utter, rock-bottom humiliation. Which is the worst place to be, but also the best place for a novel to start.

Dayna’s life begins when she is forced to start anew, which she does in a way that at first compounds her........

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