I love reading young adult fiction. Perhaps part of me is stuck in adolescence. No, I'd have to say that definitely a part of me is still there, still growing up. The surprising thing is that many of us really don't grow up in the ways that we expected to. We have expectations about what life will be like when we're 20, 30, 40... and when we get there and it's not, we wonder if something went wrong, or whether something might be wrong with us, that our life did not turn out as expected.
We carry our adolescent self with us throughout life, and the unfinished business often comes back later to be reckoned with. As I get further into middle-age, I somehow feel compelled to examine whether I've done right by the dreams I once had, whether I grew up to be who I wanted to be. And if the answer is no, what then?
I read both the books she has out in this story line. I LOVED them!! You are so right about the examining whether we've done right by the adolescent dreams. I think we both fail and succeed because you can dream, but you never know what turns the path will take or what trees might grow in the middle of that path. I still wish I'd been an English professor, to some degree but if I had I wouldn't have James and Emily and that is not a fair trade at all.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the rec! If I can hurry up and get through the book we're reading for book club I can get on this. So many books, so little time.
ReplyDeleteOne of the issues I'm grappling with is that I explored lot of interesting things in youth that haven't lead to a satisfying life now. None of that stuff--art, music, writing, and all of the other loves--went anywhere. It feels like they were all dead ends.
I didn't have a family OR a fulfilling career, so It's tempting to call the whole thing a failure. I know that's not how it works, that our lives have value regardless of what we've achieved. But it's hard to believe it sometimes when my life feels so empty regardless of how busy I am.