Book Review - The Age of Desire

 

 

Do you like Edith Wharton?  If so, this book will be semi enjoyable to you.  It's a fictional account of Edith's affair with some dude. 

 

 

It's hard to even call it fiction.  The author had copious letters written to and from Edith and had her diary.  There should be some literary term for 'the facts are true but I made up the details' stories.

 

So Edith is married.  But it is a sexless, passionless (is that a word?) and loveless marriage.   Once you see the extent to which her husband is clearly manic-depressive, it's hard to be real mad at her for having an affair.  But the affair is pitiful.   Edith is almost 40 and the dude is much younger.  She is way needy, clingy and what not.  It's embarrassing for me as a similar aged woman to read because I feel bad for Edith.  She is just so completely inexperienced.  And the affair?  I would hardly call this deal an affair.  The build up takes literal years in Edith's life and the actual affair consists of three encounters.

 

But in defense of the author, it's probably hard to sell a book called 'The Age of Writing a bunch of moony letters back and forth with a gigolo who never loved you in the first place."