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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A simple story, July 6, 2004
This review is from: Half-Life: A Novel (Paperback)
My expectations were not high for this book, which was heavily promoted in several gay magazines. As a huge fan of gay literature (and literature, in general), I read the book in 3-4 sittings. Krach's sense of character is terrific; his story-telling sparse. I wish he had cut back on some of the characters in order to have more "quality time" with some of the main characters, but he creates a very surreal feel to a fake town outside of Los Angeles. An anti-OC, for sure. It's good, it's fast -- and it's not going to change your life. Ultimately, I found myself wanting something else to happen. With all of the foreshadowing, one expects something gigantic to happen in Act Three, and, a lot like life, everything just kind of melds together. One nit-picky thing (that has nothing to do with Aaron Krach or his obvious abilities) -- how does Alyson Publications get away with publishing a book FULL of typos, grammatical errors and punctuation mistakes?
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not what I expected!, May 22, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Half-Life: A Novel (Paperback)
When I read that this novel centered on the relationship between a 38 year old man and an 18 year old man I was a little worried it was going to be nothing more than erotica (not that anything is wrong with that; just not what I wanted to read). Instead, what I found was a wonderfully observed and detailed novel that put me in mind of Anne Tyler. Mr. Krach does a terrific job of making me understand how Adam (18) and Jeff (38) come to fall in love. In fact, by the end of the book I had completely forgotten there was any age difference at all. As if their romance wasn't enough to propel the story forward the author also includes a truly unique mystery involving Adam and his father. I don't want to give anything away, but I was turning the pages like mad to find out how the situation was resolved. Another thing I appreciated about Half: Life was how the author treated the issue of gay teens. Like other recent books including Rainbow High and Geography Club the teens in this story aren't angst ridden over being gay. Which isn't to say they live in some perfect world, only that the characters themselves are much more comfortable with themselves than teens even ten years ago. Very refreshing. All in all, an excellent first novel and I look forward to reading more of Mr. Krach's work!
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23 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Pitiful First Draft Seeking an Editor, April 9, 2005
This review is from: Half-Life: A Novel (Paperback)
Shame on Allyson Publications! I place the blame for this sorry excuse for a novel squarely on their shoulders. While the author may be guilty of poor writing, it is, after all, a First Novel, and what the author needed was a good editor to guide him toward respectable finished product. Obviously, he didn't receive it.
The novel reads like a first-draft manuscript, and to charge money and sell this kind of incompetent writing to the general public is criminal. The book is rift with bad grammar, poor punctuation, sentences that aren't even mildly literate. The author confuses "your" and "you're" consistently, and makes grammatical errors that aren't just a result of style but of completely uneducated ignorance.
But these are all mistakes which would have---should have----been caught by an editor, "polished off", as it were. Instead, the reader is left putting his chin on his folded arms and giving up trying to decipher the author's intent in sheer frustration.
I understand, from the author's biography on the cover, that he is, himself, a magazine editor, so perhaps he felt he didn't need anyone to edit or proofread his novel before publishing. Yet the onus still falls to Allyson for failing to do justice to the work before putting it in print.
Other than the above mentioned errors, there's a lack of substance to the story, and far too many momentary segues to inconsequential musings that bear no direct relation to the story being told. Important scenes are broken by what amounts to sidebars in the lives of minor characters, for no explicit reason. Major issues are never resolved, nothing is learned by any of the weak characters, and the plot is thin and over-written.
This book is a travesty that was published before it was ready to be sold to the general public, and definitely isn't worth the price paid, even if you purchased it on a second-hand table. Shame on all involved.
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