Death is the most real.' Heti dramatises a similar anxiety about what, if anything, pampered North Americans have to say when for them a big drama may involve, as in this novel, your friend buying the same yellow dress that you have just bought. He lists some more suitable subjects, including 'acid rain', 'the plight of the giant panda bear', 'urban sprawl' and, finally: 'Death. In an episode of Lena Dunham's sitcom Girls, the character Ray tells protagonist Hannah that writing about her personal life is 'trivial'. Oh – and most of its characters are based on Heti's actual friends: a group of artists living in Toronto. And she's thrown in a bit of the who-slept-with-whom stuff as well. Now, in this mashup of memoir, fiction, self-help and philosophy, Sheila Heti has added a bit of story, quite a few blow jobs and some cheeky exclamation marks, and finally made it credible.

Helen Fielding made it funny and fictional in Bridget Jones's Diary Elizabeth Gilbert did it without the laughs in Eat, Pray, Love. But some writers have managed to find mileage in their angst and self-obsession. Recording what we had for breakfast must surely be more interesting than how we felt about it. Of course we all know that the more inward-looking we are, the duller we become, especially as most of us have similar anxieties, hopes and dreams. The second way is more inward-looking: long lists of anxieties, hopes, dreams, feelings, worries, pledges to become more spiritual, cut down on unhealthy substances and take more exercise. You say who you slept with, and who all your friends slept with. You detail people's conversation, clothes and jokes.

In the first, you note where you went and with whom.

How should a person be by sheila heti