“Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage” by Belle Burden is less of a memoir about a dissolved twenty year relationship and the fallout from a sudden divorce during COVID and more of a journal about a rich woman’s realization that her financial privilege cannot protect her from the audacity of men. 

Modern life is hard. Wouldn't it be better if we could just stay home and manage the house all day? That’s the promise of the Tradwife fantasy, but as “Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke shows, it’s an unfeasible and unfulfilling lifestyle more inclined to trap women than free them from the horrors of modern life. 

The shallow satisfaction that comes with instant gratification and fulfilling directionless desire is exactly what Jenette McCurdy explores in her debut fiction novel “Half His Age” and I think most readers missed that point because they didn’t like the image being reflected back at them with her narrative.