Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning

Ready for a really readable and frank memoir? Claire Dederer is a remarkable writer, and this memoir about a certain age is written with flair, fantasy, and fun. The writer doesn’t sugar-coat her sexuality in an effort to hide anything from us. If you are wondering how to have sex with your husband after fifteen years, you can go directly to that chapter. Dederer gives voice to what many of us are thinking about our lives. It is remarkably intelligent writing. She gives it to Roman Polanski while pondering his loathsome predation. She reflects on her youth, her mother’s hippy lover, and their friend who invaded her sleeping bag.

I loved the part where she gathers up her journals which are all over the place, lines them up, and reviews her life. As she moves through her life, past and present, and reflects, the reader will surely be doing the same and recognizing the universal truths of a woman aging in our society. I loved her chapter titles, and I loved this book.