Half a Life: A Memoir [Paperback]

Darin Strauss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 31, 2011

In this powerful, unforgettable memoir, acclaimed novelist Darin Strauss examines the far-reaching consequences of the tragic moment that has shadowed his whole life. In his last month of high school, he was behind the wheel of his dad's Oldsmobile, driving with friends, heading off to play mini-golf. Then: a classmate swerved in front of his car. The collision resulted in her death. With piercing insight and stark prose, Darin Strauss leads us on a deeply personal, immediate, and emotional journey—graduating high school, going away to college, starting his writing career, falling in love with his future wife, becoming a father. Along the way, he takes a hard look at loss and guilt, maturity and accountability, hope and, at last, acceptance. The result is a staggering, uplifting tour de force.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Strauss's spare memoir begins with a confession: "Half my life ago, I killed a girl." Strauss (The Real McCoy) readily acknowledges the problems of writing about this event, the result of a moment's distraction-trying to avoid aestheticizing reality, questioning his own self-involvement, admitting to playing a role of contrition, even remarking that "...tragedy turns a life into an endless publicity tour, a string of appearances where you actually think in words like 'tragedy'"-yet a discomfiting tone pervades, and some of the author's concerns, such as those related to public perception, may alienate readers. As Strauss breezes through key events that span over a decade, he reminds us that life seldom involves the drama of deep atonement, epiphanies, unadulterated grief, or nightmarish flashbacks. A much more complicated mixture of selfish relief, sadness, and survivor's guilt informs the aftermath of unthinkable events, and what proves most frightening is the gradual awareness that one has begun to forget; forgetting contains not just the drive to move ahead, but also the fear of erasure. Strauss delivers an unexpected take on remorse with the maturity that only comes from earnest reflection.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Although the accident was what insurers call a “no fault fatality,” the moment Strauss’ car struck and killed his classmate Celine, a girl he hardly knew, his life was understandably changed forever. Prompted to tell his story (he first told portions on This American Life) by new fatherhood and the realization that the earth-crumbling event had occurred half his lifetime ago, Strauss takes advantage of the perhaps unfortunate ability the accident gave him to introspect and proceeds to do so for 200 pages of conversational free-form essay. Remaining well on this side of overly sentimental, Strauss deconstructs the past 18 years and views them from every vantage point; he sees his embarrassingly self-centered thoughts immediately afterward and the premature graying of his hair and stress-related stomach problems of his late twenties. “Name an experience. It’s a good bet I’ve thought of Celine while experiencing it.” Strauss already has a few well-received novels under his belt (Chang and Eng, 2000; The Real McCoy, 2002), and his turn to nonfiction of a highly personal nature, a slow-release mediation on grief, is no less symphonic. --Annie Bostrom --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks; Reprint edition (May 31, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812982533
• ISBN-13: 978-0812982534
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (134 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Book that Literally Made My Heart Beat Faster, September 15, 2010

By 

thekittens "thekittens" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Half a Life (Hardcover)

WOW -- STRONGLY RECOMMEND!!!! I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advance copy of this memoir by Darin Strauss, and it is incredible. Almost TOO incredible -- while I was reading the first chapter, which describes the author's car accident, my heart started beating really quickly! I've never had that reaction to a book before -- and it seemed to give me a tiny glimpse into how overwhelming the whole experience that the book describes must have been for the author. Fortunately, I calmed down and finished the book in one sitting and it was riveting.

The book starts with the accident: The author, in high school, is driving his father's car when a classmate swerves in front of him on her bike. He knows there is nothing he could have done and the police confirm that. But it is hard for people in his hometown to cope with the idea that this was just a senseless, meaningless accident -- no one likes to think that our lives are out of our control; we are more comfortable with assigning fault or at least ascribing some kind of significance.

So the girl's mother tells Darin that he is living for two now, and that he has to do everything twice as well now. She seems to mean well -- to offer a way for Darin to be able to somehow make up for, or at least respond to, the accident -- but instead she places a heavy burden on him. Maybe she tried to forgive him and couldn't -- for later (no spoiler here, since the book cover discloses it) she and her husband sue Darin. But perhaps the lawsuit doesn't take the heaviest toll on him -- maybe the heaviest toll is taken by Darin's inability to get close to anyone he meets after the accident: "My accident was the deepest part of my life and the second deepest was hiding it.... By now the camouflage had become my skin." Confessing doesn't help either: "Even the truth had a lie's sourness."

The book is beautifully-written, impossible to put down, and significant for all of us hoping to figure out the meaning of our lives and to decide what -- and whom -- we are responsible for.

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Memoir, September 22, 2010

By 

Sterling Sound (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Half a Life (Hardcover)

I had the privilege of having Darin as a writing professor, and after reading his new memoir, I am even more proud to say that I studied with him. This story reads like a memoir and a personal essay, and is not only heartfelt and brave, but delves deep into the author's mind. I read it in one sitting, and will read it again, for the beautiful language, the story, and the epiphanies.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, November 5, 2010

By 

A Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Half a Life (Hardcover)

What I liked most about Half a Life: the author's not sentimental or self-aggrandizing. This is a guy who has looked squarely at himself. But the reason I couldn't stop reading Half a Life is because Darin Strauss is such a brilliant writer. I feel like I know more and feel more now than I did when I started. That's all I want from any book. I want to feel like I'm reading something true. This book delivers. It's honest and unsettling. Strauss takes a difficult story, his own, and makes it really gripping. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended!