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Currency
The Tomorrow Box
An unnervingly funny and sharply observant story about the privilege, class division, and purposeful lives of old friends by Curtis Sittenfeld, the New York Times bestselling author of Rodham.
Andy Wofford, middle-aged father and English teacher at a third-tier private school, receives a surprising invitation for a drink from an old college classmate. Once awkward and forgettable, Michael Kinnick has become a famous, wealthy, and absurdly confident lifestyle guru. Of all the people who’d want to catch up, why Michael? After thirty divergent years, why now? Mildly apprehensive, Andy is also very curious.
Curtis Sittenfeld’s The Tomorrow Box is part of Currency, a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest. Read or listen in a single sitting.
Andy Wofford, middle-aged father and English teacher at a third-tier private school, receives a surprising invitation for a drink from an old college classmate. Once awkward and forgettable, Michael Kinnick has become a famous, wealthy, and absurdly confident lifestyle guru. Of all the people who’d want to catch up, why Michael? After thirty divergent years, why now? Mildly apprehensive, Andy is also very curious.
Curtis Sittenfeld’s The Tomorrow Box is part of Currency, a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest. Read or listen in a single sitting.
25 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 25, 2021
399 people are currently reading
1382 people want to read
About the author
Curtis Sittenfeld
23 books9,676 followersCurtis Sittenfeld is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels, including Rodham, Eligible, Prep, American Wife, and Sisterland, as well as the collection You Think It, I'll Say It. Her books have been translated into thirty languages. In addition, her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post Magazine, Esquire, and The Best American Short Stories, for which she has also been the guest editor. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and Vanity Fair, and on public radio's This American Life.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews
March 15, 2021
Seemed like it was going to be a good story - but then it suddenly ended. If I hadn't loved Sittenfeld's marvelous collection "You Think It, I'll Say It," I'd say she should stick to novels.
March 7, 2021
3.25 stars
This is a standalone short story. I'm always happy to read anything by Curtis Sittenfeld. This was good, but not great. I feel like the short format did not do justice to Sittenfeld's ability to develop characters and stories. The story is told from the perspective of a middle age man who is contacted by a now famous former college friend. It felt like a somewhat typical reflection on middle age -- and the distance between youthful aspirations and where life ends up taking us. It whet my appetite for Sittenfeld's next full length novel but I didn't love it.
This is a standalone short story. I'm always happy to read anything by Curtis Sittenfeld. This was good, but not great. I feel like the short format did not do justice to Sittenfeld's ability to develop characters and stories. The story is told from the perspective of a middle age man who is contacted by a now famous former college friend. It felt like a somewhat typical reflection on middle age -- and the distance between youthful aspirations and where life ends up taking us. It whet my appetite for Sittenfeld's next full length novel but I didn't love it.
April 3, 2021
Short story about the often distorted ways we see ourselves and others as youths, then later as adults.
December 5, 2024
Life Happens
This is a story about a teacher whose wife also works at the same school and their daughter is a student there. An old friend who had become famous for books he had written called and wanted to catch up.
I wasn’t sure what the point of this story was other than to not underestimate people. Two stars because I feel generous.
This is a story about a teacher whose wife also works at the same school and their daughter is a student there. An old friend who had become famous for books he had written called and wanted to catch up.
I wasn’t sure what the point of this story was other than to not underestimate people. Two stars because I feel generous.
March 25, 2021
I so believe Curtis Sittenfeld and I are like intimate strangers who haunt the same precincts but experience utterly different realities. For me boarding schools are places where young persons can receive a formation that bestows an ethos fitting them for a life of service. For her they are citadels of wealth and privilege where scholarship pupils encounter snobbery and hauteur. In Prep she missed an opportunity to teach the father of the principal character how to be behave. Discovering the father of another student is a United States senator, the dry cleaner from South Bend goes into full inferiority complex attack mode, questioning the senator's politics and informing him "I pay your salary." Of course, daughter should helped her father understand that he and the senator enjoyed equal standing--both are parents of students--and appropriate conversational starters might be "How do you think field hockey will do this year?" In this novella we have Andy, full name Andrew Hooke Wofford IV (that suffix is not an abbreviation for "intravenous") . From out of his past comes an old college friend from Middlebury named Michael Kinnick (Sittenfeld was in the Iowa Writers Workshop so we know where she first encountered that surname), a public high school graduate from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, who mispronounces "aesthetics" as "as-tetics" (doubtless a Wofford IV makes the first vowel rhyme with "cess"—for real sophisticates it rhymes with "cease"). Andy and his buddies had a sort of gang like in The Secret History called The Octagon, and take a sort of gap year in Breckinridge, where they allow Kinnick to hang out with them, whilst secretly mocking him, nicknaming him “Anus.”
Now the 52 y/o Andy is teaching English at Green Hills Academy, a “third-tier” K-12 country day school, where his 38 y/o wife also teaches, and their two children attend. It’s intriguing that he should be so candid about the school’s level-three status, whether it is determined by the tuition, the average SAT scores achieved by the students, or which previous institutions they flunked out of. (Probably the last.) He remarks that none of the students have ever read a book that wasn’t assigned for a class. Most faculty at such places find a way to save face by telling themselves that, “our students are really well-rounded” or “we gave them another chance.” Andy finds that the formerly despised “Anus” Kinnick has now become a celebrated New York magazine writer and men’s life coach, who gives seminars starting at $550 ($800 to $1200 for the private full-fare sessions). Andy goes New Hampshire to join Michael for dinner at a B&B that costs $420 a night minimum. Andy is quite conscious of how much things cost—he and his wife’s “combined salaries are less than $150,000”—which I’d say is pretty good for a couple of ex-English majors for talking about books and coaching LAX, especially if their two children get free tuition.
I was hoping in this story that Andy would reveal what his life as a teacher meant to him, what he thought he and the school were doing for their students. There is no trace in the story that Green Hills Academy offers a formation, that it espouses any moral or spiritual values, as for example a Quaker or Catholic or Steiner school might. Nor does Andy seem aware that as an English teacher he is the front line in the battle against ignorance and barbarism, trying to maintain some remnant of culture and literacy in a benighted land of Philistines. So, I don’t know whether this story is supposed to be a satire, or perhaps something in the vein of Ann Beattie about characters who drift through life free from stress. Wofford IV might have been one of those 18th-century clergymen who saw in the Church an opportunity for humanities graduates to enjoy a modest but comfortable competence.
Now the 52 y/o Andy is teaching English at Green Hills Academy, a “third-tier” K-12 country day school, where his 38 y/o wife also teaches, and their two children attend. It’s intriguing that he should be so candid about the school’s level-three status, whether it is determined by the tuition, the average SAT scores achieved by the students, or which previous institutions they flunked out of. (Probably the last.) He remarks that none of the students have ever read a book that wasn’t assigned for a class. Most faculty at such places find a way to save face by telling themselves that, “our students are really well-rounded” or “we gave them another chance.” Andy finds that the formerly despised “Anus” Kinnick has now become a celebrated New York magazine writer and men’s life coach, who gives seminars starting at $550 ($800 to $1200 for the private full-fare sessions). Andy goes New Hampshire to join Michael for dinner at a B&B that costs $420 a night minimum. Andy is quite conscious of how much things cost—he and his wife’s “combined salaries are less than $150,000”—which I’d say is pretty good for a couple of ex-English majors for talking about books and coaching LAX, especially if their two children get free tuition.
I was hoping in this story that Andy would reveal what his life as a teacher meant to him, what he thought he and the school were doing for their students. There is no trace in the story that Green Hills Academy offers a formation, that it espouses any moral or spiritual values, as for example a Quaker or Catholic or Steiner school might. Nor does Andy seem aware that as an English teacher he is the front line in the battle against ignorance and barbarism, trying to maintain some remnant of culture and literacy in a benighted land of Philistines. So, I don’t know whether this story is supposed to be a satire, or perhaps something in the vein of Ann Beattie about characters who drift through life free from stress. Wofford IV might have been one of those 18th-century clergymen who saw in the Church an opportunity for humanities graduates to enjoy a modest but comfortable competence.
June 9, 2022
As I've mentioned on Goodreads many times, I'm a Curtis Sittenfeld fan, but The Tomorrow Box, a standalone short story, was one of her weaker efforts. The characters all seemed false to me, and the theme of how we relate to famous friends is just not one I can identify with or have much sympathy around. Plus, there were two separate storylines, and to me they didn't seem to link together at all, unless it was just a trite "we may not have money, but we're rich in other ways!" kind of thing.
Unusual for Sittenfeld, this story is told from the point of view of a man. The audio is read by Eric Dane, who did a good job, but hearing it read out loud just underlined how much of the character's interior monologue was really unlikely for an actual person.
I'm between 2 and 3 stars but will be nice and round up.
Unusual for Sittenfeld, this story is told from the point of view of a man. The audio is read by Eric Dane, who did a good job, but hearing it read out loud just underlined how much of the character's interior monologue was really unlikely for an actual person.
I'm between 2 and 3 stars but will be nice and round up.
April 12, 2021
I thought everything was working until the ending. The story kind of flops to a close.
"The Tomorrow Box" follows Andy, a middle aged teacher at a private school. He's happy with his life. He married his wife (I think almost 2 decades younger than him) years ago and they now have two kids, a son and daughter. Andy's daughter right now is going through that age where they can't stop thinking about all of the things going on in the world and worrying about them. Andy tells her about a "tomorrow box" where she can put those things there so she can sleep peacefully. Along with this though, Andy is planning to get together with an old friend from college who is very famous and rich.
The story I think would have been better to follow through the whole "tomorrow box" idea. When we have Andy meet his friend, Michael, called Anus by the college friends, the whole story just unraveled. I don't know what we were supposed to take away from it. But the story just kind of thuds to a close.
"The Tomorrow Box" follows Andy, a middle aged teacher at a private school. He's happy with his life. He married his wife (I think almost 2 decades younger than him) years ago and they now have two kids, a son and daughter. Andy's daughter right now is going through that age where they can't stop thinking about all of the things going on in the world and worrying about them. Andy tells her about a "tomorrow box" where she can put those things there so she can sleep peacefully. Along with this though, Andy is planning to get together with an old friend from college who is very famous and rich.
The story I think would have been better to follow through the whole "tomorrow box" idea. When we have Andy meet his friend, Michael, called Anus by the college friends, the whole story just unraveled. I don't know what we were supposed to take away from it. But the story just kind of thuds to a close.
March 11, 2021
Sittenfeld and her hierarchies
If you know Sittenfeld, you know there will be a prep school, and then adults who still are obsessed by status.
Someone is famous, or wealthy, or something else.
And this tale is no exception.
The reminder of status gets to me in her long form tales, but short tales like these are just the right size.
And yeah this is a good one.
Very good, five stars.
If you know Sittenfeld, you know there will be a prep school, and then adults who still are obsessed by status.
Someone is famous, or wealthy, or something else.
And this tale is no exception.
The reminder of status gets to me in her long form tales, but short tales like these are just the right size.
And yeah this is a good one.
Very good, five stars.
February 27, 2021
This was interesting, and I love Curtis Sittenfeld’s slice of life short stories, but I feel like I maybe missed the point of this one?
March 6, 2022
3.75 stars
August 17, 2023
3/5
Patiko turbūt mažiausiai iš visų kol kas skaitytų Amazon short stories, nors iš Curtis Sittenfeld tikėjausi jei ne daugiausiai, tai bent jau labai daug. Ta vidutinio amžiaus krizės ir tiesiog vyrų santykių tema, kai vienas gal nebūtinai labai prasimušęs, o kitam tarsi tik pasisekę, šiaip jau girdėta ir skaityta. Ir tikrai turėtų potencialo būti įdomiu romanu, bet čia per trumpa istorija, kad kažką viduje sujudintų. Veikėjų potencialas yra, intrigos – irgi, o ir mintis, kad skirtingi žmonės labai skirtingai mato tuos pačius dalykus gali būti išpildoma net labai įdomiai, bet šį kartą praplaukiama paviršiuje. Aptakiai, per greitai. Gal tiesiog užmojai, nors ir tinkami romanui, trumpoje istorijoje niekaip negali atsiskleisti?
Patinka man ta akademinė aplinka, patinka ir mintis apie tai, kad labai vidutinių gabumų bičas stiprai išpopuliarėja pareiškęs, kad visas merginas suviliojo per hipnozę. Bet vėliau prie to nebegrįžtama – nei prie temos ryškaus seksualinio priekabiavimo aspekto, nei prie pačios idėjos kaip tai įmanoma ir ar čia tik protingas PR ėjimas. Todėl galiu vertinti tik vidutiniškai, bet prie Sittenfeld romanų tikrai dar grįšiu.
Patiko turbūt mažiausiai iš visų kol kas skaitytų Amazon short stories, nors iš Curtis Sittenfeld tikėjausi jei ne daugiausiai, tai bent jau labai daug. Ta vidutinio amžiaus krizės ir tiesiog vyrų santykių tema, kai vienas gal nebūtinai labai prasimušęs, o kitam tarsi tik pasisekę, šiaip jau girdėta ir skaityta. Ir tikrai turėtų potencialo būti įdomiu romanu, bet čia per trumpa istorija, kad kažką viduje sujudintų. Veikėjų potencialas yra, intrigos – irgi, o ir mintis, kad skirtingi žmonės labai skirtingai mato tuos pačius dalykus gali būti išpildoma net labai įdomiai, bet šį kartą praplaukiama paviršiuje. Aptakiai, per greitai. Gal tiesiog užmojai, nors ir tinkami romanui, trumpoje istorijoje niekaip negali atsiskleisti?
Patinka man ta akademinė aplinka, patinka ir mintis apie tai, kad labai vidutinių gabumų bičas stiprai išpopuliarėja pareiškęs, kad visas merginas suviliojo per hipnozę. Bet vėliau prie to nebegrįžtama – nei prie temos ryškaus seksualinio priekabiavimo aspekto, nei prie pačios idėjos kaip tai įmanoma ir ar čia tik protingas PR ėjimas. Todėl galiu vertinti tik vidutiniškai, bet prie Sittenfeld romanų tikrai dar grįšiu.
November 29, 2022
This is an Amazon Short Story written by Curtis Sittenfeld, who is a favorite author of mine. It features Andy, a 50 + year old man who has built a nice family life for himself. He and his wife teach at the same private school and are raising two young children. In simple domestic scenes, the reader gets a sense of his quiet happiness.
Out of the blue, Andy is contacted by an old acquaintance (Michael) who is in town to teach a self-growth seminar. Michael has become a rich and famous life-style coach. The two men meet each other at a hotel bar and feel competitive. As they talk, the reader is led to reflect upon how we measure success. Which man is more successful?
Sittenfeld has given us a slice of life to enjoy and ponder.
Out of the blue, Andy is contacted by an old acquaintance (Michael) who is in town to teach a self-growth seminar. Michael has become a rich and famous life-style coach. The two men meet each other at a hotel bar and feel competitive. As they talk, the reader is led to reflect upon how we measure success. Which man is more successful?
Sittenfeld has given us a slice of life to enjoy and ponder.
April 3, 2021
There are 8 short stories in the Amazon Original collection titled Currency. Friends, trends, and dividends - a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse.
I'm reading the collection in random order, and won't say much about the premise, as these are really short, and I don't want to give anything away.
I have yet to read any work by the author, and while this one started out really well, it seemed to peter out, and the ending was so abrupt that I assumed there was an error in the download. I liked the setting, and the themes explored, but this left me wanting more. The writing is really good, but it felt that there simply weren't enough pages for the author's character work to fully take flight.
I listened to this on audio, which was well narrated by Eric Dane.
I'm reading the collection in random order, and won't say much about the premise, as these are really short, and I don't want to give anything away.
I have yet to read any work by the author, and while this one started out really well, it seemed to peter out, and the ending was so abrupt that I assumed there was an error in the download. I liked the setting, and the themes explored, but this left me wanting more. The writing is really good, but it felt that there simply weren't enough pages for the author's character work to fully take flight.
I listened to this on audio, which was well narrated by Eric Dane.
November 13, 2022
not for me.
another story from this collection of short stories that is just a too long drawn out and has no real purpose, message or idea behind it.
other than that the author apparently believes that no teenager reads books for fun. which okay? what kind of note is that? especially coming from a teacher? if you want your students interested in books, give them books and stories that are interested in! show them that everyone can find their perfect read and be entertained and happy reading.
but i guess just pointing out a generalization works too.
another story from this collection of short stories that is just a too long drawn out and has no real purpose, message or idea behind it.
other than that the author apparently believes that no teenager reads books for fun. which okay? what kind of note is that? especially coming from a teacher? if you want your students interested in books, give them books and stories that are interested in! show them that everyone can find their perfect read and be entertained and happy reading.
but i guess just pointing out a generalization works too.
November 12, 2021
I liked this short story that examines what friendship really means and how we treat people can follow us far later in life.
Narration was excellent.
Narration was excellent.
February 26, 2021
Very intriguing story of two men, one a teacher married with two kids, and another a now famous and wealthy lifestyle guru who has never married. A story about privilege and class, families and the what would have been’s in life. These two friends decide to meet after thirty years.
Curtis Sittenfeld’s The Tomorrow Box is part of Currency, a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest.
Curtis Sittenfeld’s The Tomorrow Box is part of Currency, a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest.
September 3, 2025
This little story had no ending, and I really really wanted one.
August 31, 2021
How good can Curtis Sittenfeld get? Nobody knows. She just keeps getting better.
April 16, 2021
The other story I read during the 15-minute post-vaccine stay at the doctor's office. It started out well enough, but the end was so abrupt I thought the Kindle app or my phone was glitching.
June 17, 2021
Curtis Sittenfeld, along with Emma Cline & Kiley Reid, was one of the authors that sold me on reading this whole collection.
This is a story about a teacher who meets a now-famous former classmate for a drink and a catch up. My notes say "They're both odd AF" which is fairly accurate, but underneath what appears to be a weird and awkward meeting is a satirical biting commentary on class, the definition of success, grudges, and status.
This one, while I enjoyed it, felt a little unfinished to me but I did love the idea of a "tomorrow box", a technique used by the main character Andy to alleviate his daughter's night-time fears.
This is a story about a teacher who meets a now-famous former classmate for a drink and a catch up. My notes say "They're both odd AF" which is fairly accurate, but underneath what appears to be a weird and awkward meeting is a satirical biting commentary on class, the definition of success, grudges, and status.
This one, while I enjoyed it, felt a little unfinished to me but I did love the idea of a "tomorrow box", a technique used by the main character Andy to alleviate his daughter's night-time fears.
March 9, 2021
I figured I’d check out some of Amazon’s new collection of short stories. I enjoyed reading a book in one sitting! There are a lot to choose from. I’ve enjoyed Curtis Sitenfeld’s short stories before so I thought I’d give it a try. It must be challenging for a writer to develop characters and a plot in so few pages but she does a pretty good job. Can’t compare to a full novel in many ways but fun for a change! I might read a few more when I want a quick distraction without the commitment!
March 1, 2021
Nice short story about a man who treasures his family more than success and there’s nothing wrong with that.
April 23, 2021
2.5 ⭐️
I was enjoying this so much I wanted a full novel... and then the ending just fell flat. Left me with nothing.
I was enjoying this so much I wanted a full novel... and then the ending just fell flat. Left me with nothing.
June 20, 2021
This was a quick listen I think 40 minutes or so, I've read 3 of her books, so I thought I'd give this a shot and was disappointed I think it could have been so much better. Perhaps she's better with novels. The beginning was excellent the last half definitely lacked the more honest train of thought that the first half had. I feel like a little bit more should have been said between the two characters or rather more honesty should have been displayed by the narrator who is one of the main characters. It definitely made me end up not really liking him which I had been up until then,and I usually don't need to like characters to like the story but when you've been thinking of them in way through the whole story and suddenly find out they're not that way, then it ends abruptly, it feels disappointing.As I write this though I'm thinking 🤔 I might change my rating to 3.5 stars as this story did really stick with me afterwards and I feel it will for awhile and that's something for such a short time invested. I will definitely always read her I enjoy her work, I guess even when I don't , I still do, in the way that it obviously, makes me think.
March 12, 2021
It was nice reading about the main character's life and how it developed, plus his views on growing up with the normal teenage angst and how and his peers all seemed to want to be seen as cool and not the outsider. Nice play between those with cultural capital and those without, but I found the meeting between him and the character who had become famous really quite strange. I didn't really get what the story was saying. Having since read other reviews I noticed a few said they didn't feel they got the point, and I'm definitely in that camp. Maybe it will come to me later, but not a great book from my perspective.
November 3, 2024
Entertaining relationships listening 🎶🔰
This kindle e-book novella is from my Kindle Unlimited account book five of eight.
The story starts with young people being young exploring life to older people and the life they have now and relationships.
I would recommend this series and various authors to looking for something different about life and growing up. 2024 👒😤
This kindle e-book novella is from my Kindle Unlimited account book five of eight.
The story starts with young people being young exploring life to older people and the life they have now and relationships.
I would recommend this series and various authors to looking for something different about life and growing up. 2024 👒😤
March 27, 2025
Love everything I read from this author! My critique is that this didn’t feel completely fleshed out but I enjoyed all the same.
What stuck out to me about this story is that I don’t read much about male friendship. That men harbor resentment and jealousy towards friends or acquaintances they way women are portrayed.
Liked the narrator and would recc the audio.
What stuck out to me about this story is that I don’t read much about male friendship. That men harbor resentment and jealousy towards friends or acquaintances they way women are portrayed.
Liked the narrator and would recc the audio.
October 11, 2021
I thought I would need a break from short stories after finishing that giant compilation. But I couldn't resist this Curtis Sittenfeld story. It was worth the read to think about the paths you can take in life.
October 11, 2022
An interesting short story about two men and how their friendship had evolved thru college to adulthood.
January 22, 2023
3.5 stars. eric dane did a good job of reading it (although i did think it was will arnett all the way through lol)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews