be game for

Labatut’s 2021 debut, “When We Cease to Understand the World,” was a surprise critical and commercial success; who knew so many readers would be game for melancholy fictional studies of quantum scientists?

So it seems like he’d be game for an even grander misdirection.

What he wants to talk about is how nervous he and Kwan were when meeting her for the first time, wondering if she’d be game for sporting floppy hot dog fingers or misremembering a Pixar classic as “Raccacoonie.”

“Jesse was like, instead of coming back in a few weeks, would you be game for doing this tomorrow?”

He’s probably not going to let you knock out walls, but I’m hopeful he’ll be game for a few smaller updates—especially since you’ve been there a decade.