After McCurdy’s memoir I’ve been watching to see what’s next. To be fair, I’ve seen now so many interviews with McCurdy that I had a great idea of what to expect. And I feel like it’s a great way to frame your experience. Keep reading this book review of Half His Age for my full thoughts.
Summary
Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Forceful. Hurting. Perceptive. Endlessly wanting. And the thing she wants most of all: Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher with the wife and the kid and the mortgage and the bills, with the dead dreams and the atrophied looks and the growing paunch. She doesn’t know why she wants him. Is it his passion? His life experience? The fact that he knows books and films and things that she doesn’t? Or is it purer than that, rooted in their unlikely connection, their kindred spirits, the similar filter with which they each take in the world around them? Or, perhaps, it’s just enough that he sees her when no one else does.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the Libro.fm. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Half His Age is evocative. It’s a story about what we would do to be wanted. McCurdy’s sophomore book is about obsession, this deep need to be loved, and what it’s like to sink our dreams of self, love, and the future in our image of someone. In some ways it’s about chasing a temporary high and how we would use anything in our arsenal as currency and lure. We often see ourselves in someone else and Half His Age is about falling into the traps we know we’re in. It’s for everyone who’s had to feel mature for their age. To think it’s a privilege to be chosen. And for what we would do to measure up.
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There are some truly great lines which feel like gut punches. Half His Age is an examination of a moment, of a relationship, of a point in life. It is about the sustenance we need, the relationships which serve us, and the people we become. It’s frank and at times glaring. And Jennette is absolutely brilliant as a narrator. I wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s a raw vulnerability paired with a directness. Find Half His Age on Goodreads, Storygraph, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.