As the buzz around this built I really had no interest in reading it - I tend to get annoyed by messy characters - but I'd decided to read the National Book Award fiction shortlist, so here we are. The first half of this slowly became more and more unhinged, to the point where I wasn't sure I wanted to finish. But I decided to treat it like I do nonfiction, and read for an hour or so and then move on to something else. But once I got a little past the halfway mark, things started shifting and I was more interested. To the point where I finished it in one sitting. The protagonist is still messy, but manages to pull herself together a bit more. There's a lot to think about here in terms of aging, desire, and monogamy, some discussion of perimenopause, and plenty of other topics. July has done something really interesting with the structure of this book and the emotional journey it takes the reader on, and ultimately I'm glad I read it.