---
title: ""But the three years I spent shadowing Eli for my new book, The Boy…"
date: 2018-05-12
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships shared a link.
---

# "But the three years I spent shadowing Eli for my new book, The Boy…

*May 12, 2018 · Facebook*

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[https://www.thecut.com/2017/06/the-secret-to-small-talk.html?utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=fb&utm_medium=s1](https://www.thecut.com/2017/06/the-secret-to-small-talk.html?utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=fb&utm_medium=s1){target="_blank"}
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\"But the three years I spent shadowing Eli for my new book, The Boy Who Loved Too Much, taught me that perfect small talk itself wasn't the balm for awkwardness I sought. When people responded warmly to him --- and they almost invariably did --- it wasn't because he was a smooth talker. He made mistakes that would have mortified me, like calling people by the wrong name. For a while after I met him, he called me Kenny (instead of Jennie), which I later discovered was his school-bus driver's name. But every time I showed up at his house, he was so genuinely excited to see me that it was impossible to take offense.\
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"Hi, Kenny!" he shouted when I came over one Saturday to accompany him and his mother, Gayle, to his special-needs baseball league. "I'm so excited to go to baseball with you! This is the best day of my life!"\
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[https://www.thecut.com/2017/06/the-secret-to-small-talk.html](https://www.thecut.com/2017/06/the-secret-to-small-talk.html){target="_blank"}
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