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What happens when overnight the Next Big Thing becomes a nobody?
Twenty-six-year-old Evelyn is well on her way to becoming an international opera star. . . until one night, mid-performance, when she inexplicably loses her voice. With no cure in sight, she's forced to put her dreams on pause, flying back to her hometown to wait out her recovery.
Stuck in limbo, Evelyn balances her time attending overpriced doctors' appointments and accidentally-on-purpose running into her ex on the street outside his apartment. Then she discovers that her old high school is hiring a debating coach (no experience needed!) and realises this might just be her ticket back to relevance.
While re-entering the gates of her alma mater is a welcome reminder of the glory days, being faced with a bunch of starry-eyed teenagers,who haven't had their dreams blown to pieces yet,makes clear just how thin the line can be between drive and delusion---forcing Evelyn to consider whether she could ever be truly satisfied living a life away from the spotlight.
A deeply funny novel about chasing your dreams and losing your ambition, Very Impressive For Your Age explores the mid-twenties crisis that occurs when you learn that who you always wanted to be when you grew up isn't quite what you imagined.
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What happens when overnight the Next Big Thing becomes a nobody?
Twenty-six-year-old Evelyn is well on her way to becoming an international opera star. . . until one night, mid-performance, when she inexplicably loses her voice. With no cure in sight, she's forced to put her dreams on pause, flying back to her hometown to wait out her recovery.
Stuck in limbo, Evelyn balances her time attending overpriced doctors' appointments and accidentally-on-purpose running into her ex on the street outside his apartment. Then she discovers that her old high school is hiring a debating coach (no experience needed!) and realises this might just be her ticket back to relevance.
While re-entering the gates of her alma mater is a welcome reminder of the glory days, being faced with a bunch of starry-eyed teenagers,who haven't had their dreams blown to pieces yet,makes clear just how thin the line can be between drive and delusion---forcing Evelyn to consider whether she could ever be truly satisfied living a life away from the spotlight.
A deeply funny novel about chasing your dreams and losing your ambition, Very Impressive For Your Age explores the mid-twenties crisis that occurs when you learn that who you always wanted to be when you grew up isn't quite what you imagined.
Evelyn is on the brink of becoming a star. After years of opera singing and acceptance into the Royal Institute of Music in London, she has won the lead role in a production of The Magic Flute. But one night, mid-performance, Evelyn unexpectedly loses her singing voice. As quickly as her fame started, it is taken away. She is immediately replaced and so returns to her parents’ home in Sydney – to find all her friends are getting married or embarking on exciting new careers, and to her ex-boyfriend who moved on more quickly than she would have liked. Now, voiceless and alone, Evelyn must confront what she truly wants in life, and what on Earth she is going to do next.
Although I know nothing about singing and the performing arts, this novel was still extremely relatable. I’ve recently graduated from university with a Bachelor of Arts, and so I have experienced many times the painful existential dread whenever someone asks, ‘What are you going to do with your degree?’ or ‘What jobs can you do with a [insert unemployable discipline/subject area here] major?’. Like Evelyn, I’ve never been extremely fuelled by ambition for a super high-achieving career and I also believe there are more important things in life, such as family, friends, and travelling, etc. And yet, that specific shame hits like a brick when society, especially the people around you, expect something from you – something bigger, something more.
One of Evelyn’s friends repeatedly states that they believe ambition to be a capitalist ploy to enslave people into the workforce. While that may be true, Eleanor Kirk reassures us that, despite a competitive profession, environment, or entire society, there is nothing shameful about not being sure of what comes next. Kirk’s hilarious and candid debut is ultimately about chasing your dreams, whatever they may look like, and not caring about anyone’s opinion but your own.
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