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A review by katieoyama
Thanks for Waiting: The Joy (& Weirdness) of Being a Late Bloomer by Doree Shafrir
0.5
I bought this book without reading any reviews. The only reason I finished it was because it felt like a waste of my money to not.
I should start by saying that I don’t expect all memoirs to follow a format where the author connects their life experiences to data or studies. However, considering Doree Shafrir’s journalism background, I expected some sort of research on the increasing population of single women over the age of 30 and contributing societal factors.
Instead, the book was a fully isolated memoir with a couple purely opinion based references to society here and there. Fair enough. But even as a life-experience-only memoir, “Thanks for Waiting: The Joy (& Weirdness) of Being a Late Bloomer” is not good.
My biggest issue is the pacing. Shafrir goes from her childhood to college then largely skips over her 20s. Again, fair enough. This is a memoir about being a “late bloomer.” But the time jump left it feeling like there are large gaps of missing information. (For example: Several times during the first part of the book, she references dropping out of a PhD program in her 20s, but nowhere is there explanation of what happened, even though it clearly impacted her decision making several times.)
The first almost 130 pages are basically her detailing her dating and sexual exploits, along with some career-based spiraling. Which would be fine, but they’re all written with a voice that gives “I’m uncomfortable with how privileged my life has been thus far so I have to really ham up how bad things felt to get sympathy” vibes.
Then, she moves to LA and meets her now-husband. This whole section gave me narrative whiplash. Given the fact an on-again, off-again fuckboy “relationship” was given a full 18 pages, Shafrir went from matching with her husband on Tinder to being engaged and trying to get pregnant in only 27 pages. There’s very little about the development of their relationship. The most descriptive she gets about the relationship’s emotional development is: “The honeymoon phase of strolling around New York hand in hand may have been over, but there was still so much I loved about Matt.”
The next 91 pages detail her experience and frustrations with IVF. All of which are completely valid. IVF is a taxing and frustrating process. Eventually, Shafrir does have a successful pregnancy and the last 25 pages are about all her frustrations with motherhood and how everything didn’t just click into place and become magically easy once she had what she wanted.
Given the fact the title is “Thanks for Waiting: The JOYS (& Weirdness) of Being a Late Bloomer,” there is very little joy to be found in this book. Shafrir instead comes across as unlikable and lacking any sort of introspective ability. The only constant in the book is that she is dissatisfied with her lot in life, regardless of whether she gets what she wants or not. The most enjoyable part of this was the last page about the typeface used. It gave a nice 2 paragraph history on Garamond.
I should start by saying that I don’t expect all memoirs to follow a format where the author connects their life experiences to data or studies. However, considering Doree Shafrir’s journalism background, I expected some sort of research on the increasing population of single women over the age of 30 and contributing societal factors.
Instead, the book was a fully isolated memoir with a couple purely opinion based references to society here and there. Fair enough. But even as a life-experience-only memoir, “Thanks for Waiting: The Joy (& Weirdness) of Being a Late Bloomer” is not good.
My biggest issue is the pacing. Shafrir goes from her childhood to college then largely skips over her 20s. Again, fair enough. This is a memoir about being a “late bloomer.” But the time jump left it feeling like there are large gaps of missing information. (For example: Several times during the first part of the book, she references dropping out of a PhD program in her 20s, but nowhere is there explanation of what happened, even though it clearly impacted her decision making several times.)
The first almost 130 pages are basically her detailing her dating and sexual exploits, along with some career-based spiraling. Which would be fine, but they’re all written with a voice that gives “I’m uncomfortable with how privileged my life has been thus far so I have to really ham up how bad things felt to get sympathy” vibes.
Then, she moves to LA and meets her now-husband. This whole section gave me narrative whiplash. Given the fact an on-again, off-again fuckboy “relationship” was given a full 18 pages, Shafrir went from matching with her husband on Tinder to being engaged and trying to get pregnant in only 27 pages. There’s very little about the development of their relationship. The most descriptive she gets about the relationship’s emotional development is: “The honeymoon phase of strolling around New York hand in hand may have been over, but there was still so much I loved about Matt.”
The next 91 pages detail her experience and frustrations with IVF. All of which are completely valid. IVF is a taxing and frustrating process. Eventually, Shafrir does have a successful pregnancy and the last 25 pages are about all her frustrations with motherhood and how everything didn’t just click into place and become magically easy once she had what she wanted.
Given the fact the title is “Thanks for Waiting: The JOYS (& Weirdness) of Being a Late Bloomer,” there is very little joy to be found in this book. Shafrir instead comes across as unlikable and lacking any sort of introspective ability. The only constant in the book is that she is dissatisfied with her lot in life, regardless of whether she gets what she wants or not. The most enjoyable part of this was the last page about the typeface used. It gave a nice 2 paragraph history on Garamond.