Reading A Past (Book Review: The Unborn Spouse Situation, Matt Rauscher)

"The Unborn Spouse Situation, "  by Matt Rauscher is a gay coming-of-age book, and I have read many of those. It's one of my favorite fiction genres. And while I sped through reading this book, I never really liked the main character. He reminded me so much of myself when I was younger, and I despised him. I am thinking about it and perhaps maybe because it is a part of myself that I regret living, or is it because of all the regret for missed opportunities. So, in the end, I can't really reconcile my feelings for this book except for the fact that I couldn't stop reading it. Maybe, in a way, it was like watching a flashback of a life I no longer want to revisit. Rauscher is an engaging writer, but I just couldn't handle his main character, Augie, make the same mistake over and over and over again. Even as the book ended, I do not get a hint that he has really learned his lesson. But that isn't the writer's fault. I accept now the fact that this is the character he has created, and I just need to accept the character as is. It is similar to seeing a young person making a wrong decision - you know and everyone else knows that it is a wrong decision, but you also have to accept the fact that he has to go through the consequences of that decision before he realizes his mistake.  I guess it is a testament to the book that it made me think about past choices, and where I am right now, and happy to have arrived at my particular place in life.

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