Reckless Years

June 1, 2017
Diary entries from a woman who left her marriage and husband for a freer existence.Chaplin's epistolary memoir, extracted from two years of recovered emails and journals she'd kept beginning in 2006, chronicles the dramatic, adventurous, and heartbreaking story of a restless married woman who'd fallen out of love with her husband of 13 years. The author opens with frustration and resentment at her "stoner" spouse, Josh, a formerly athletic Southern California surfer who remained glued to his video games while she wrote about her unhappiness in a secret daybook "to stave off going mad." The author found catharsis through the "calming logic of language." Desperate to abandon the rage-filled man she'd known since she was 20, the author eventually separated from him and moved to Dublin to meet her brother, Seth, who was touring with a rock band. In Dublin, Chaplin's single life bloomed. Excited about the new world her separation inspired, the author writes feverishly of make-out sessions in the streets and of her passionate relationship with sexy Irish lad Kieran. Yet she felt like a "husk" when Josh called, on Christmas Eve, to ask for advice on a new relationship he'd begun with another woman in Los Angeles. Though the gears of this memoir grind a bit too erratically and self-consciously at times, Chaplin voices her intimate thoughts and emotions consistently and urgently enough to capture readers' attention as well as their sympathy when the author's free-for-all single life begins to sour. Memories of former happiness with Josh haunted her, and a serious bout of depression followed a spontaneously messy return to Ireland in an attempt to make miracles happen with the philandering Kieran. This a breezy, compelling slice of reality, as Chaplin openly shares her trials with a "freedom and exaltation such as I'd never known, as well as darkness that threatened to bury me." A restless yet satisfying memoir that will appeal most to women who've found themselves fleeing hopeless relationships.

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Starred review from September 18, 2017
Journalist Chaplin (Smartbomb) had been married for 13 years when she realized she no longer loved her husband and began a diary that would evolve into this thoughtful, moving memoir. Garnering her courage, she ended her relationship—which was emotionally abusive and codependent—and set out to experience life on her own again at the age of 35. In her untethered state she found a refreshing freedom and took advantage of her situation by ramping up her freelance writing career. At one point, she traveled to Ireland to write a piece on Dublin; there she met a documentary filmmaker and had a steamy but anguished affair. Her story is exhilarating and full of extraordinary people; she experiences inflated highs followed by dark and, at times, suicidal lows. Her self-reflection ranges from “You rule, HC!” to “I do not like myself.... And maybe I’m not as cool and awesome as I thought.” Chaplin’s writing is spirited and multilayered, and readers will be drawn into this deepening tale of love, sex, confusion, buried family secrets, and—as the title suggests—“madness.” The sheer force of Chaplin’s relentless passion for the magnificence of life makes this a fascinating narrative.