Half-Life

by Aaron Krach

Book Overview

A novel about learning to take risks, depending on your friends, believing in yourself and creating your own life by your own rules. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0739448536
• ISBN13: 9780739448533
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: ALYSON BOOKS
• Length: 321 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

dumb in so many ways

I just don't get it...how does stuff like this get published? Because the "author" lives in a big city and runs into publishing types? He must be a charming guy, because i've read some junk this month, but _HalfLife_ takes the prize. Glad I found it in a Salvation Army booksale and didn't pay full price. Omigod.

A Diesel in the Future

I don't know much about Southern California, but the world of HALF LIFE jumps up at the reader fully installed. There are the two high school friends, Adam and Dart, both of them cute and Dart newly so, so he's not used to being cruised or indeed any kind of attention at all. There's the gay cop Jeff, in his mid-thirties, who takes a shine to Adam a week before Adam's graduation day. Adam's dad is a piece of work who needs more watching than any baby, and his mother has abdicated her place in the family in search of a hot career. The book is too long and some of the gay boys' banter is truly uninspired. Dart complains of getting a B in English: "I hate Jane Austen. She can take her pride abd her prejudice and keep em." But Krach has the power to keep you reading along despite every lapse in taste or sense. He has the old standby of the novel, narrative drive, and he plays this card in unexpected places. The unlikely love affair between Jeff and Adam plays itself out in a truly sexy way, so you're rooting for them both to score, and Krach plays with your expectations in this regard like a master puppeteer. Only his puppets breathe and quarrel and drive fast just like real boys do. I don't believe in June 1999 when the novel is set that any one, except maybe a casting agent, would admire another character's looks by saying he's "built like Vin Diesel." Vin Diesel wasn't known to the moviegoing public in general for another couple of years. PITCH BLACK and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS were only lustful anticipations in the Hollywood dream factory. But that's just a movie queen talking, and it's the only mistake in chronology I could see in Aaron Krach's complicated, rewarding novel of manners.

Not what you'd expect

Half-Life is a well-written, concise look at both gay teen and adult life. It's the story of 18-year-old Adam, on the verge of graduation, his best friend, Dart, and how transitions in life can occur suddenly and dramatically--though all can turn out for the best more easily than you might think. Part of the plot is Adam meeting Jeff, a 38-year-old police officer, and their tentative, even burgeoning, romance. While they carefully explore the possibility of getting together, despite high obstacles, Adam's friend Dart looks for love of his own. The teenage dialogue is right on the mark and the love scenes sizzle. This isn't a light-fluff gay romance novel, but a meaningful, thoughtful story of lives that intersect.

Original, powerful read!

Some may consider "Half-Life" a reason for redefining their own beliefs about contemporary life and love, in any shapes, forms, and circumstances it may come. "Half-Life" deals with real, serious, contemporary issues of our everyday life. Characters are three-dimensional, evolving throughout the story. It is easy for readers to identify with the characters, after all, who hasn't been a teenager, or in love? Who hasn't had questions and unsecurities about a new beginning? The author's storytelling talent comes through from the first page to the last. That is yet, another reason the read is engaging, excellent!

Not what I expected!

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!