A Kind of In-Between by Aaron Burch

A Kind of In-Between by Aaron Burch is a book of essays that reads like short stories, exploring Burch’s life as a teacher, writer, divorcee, and a 40-something Midwesterner. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Aaron Burch is both nostalgic and looking forward to what's to come, all while trying to enjoy the present as much as possible. A Kind of In-Between looks at the last few years of Aaron's life (getting divorced, teaching, being a writer, settling into life in the Midwest in his 40s) and also back to his childhood (being adopted, an almost obnoxiously happy and loving childhood, growing up on the West Coast), in curious, playful snapshots that become a whole greater than the sum of their parts. These short essays are about growing up and memory; who Aaron is and who he wants to be; road trips and home and collectibles and family and friendship; how he sees himself, how he wants others to see him, and all the overlaps and incongruencies therein; being a stepfather and son and child and adult and husband and ex and teacher and writer and friend; the things we keep and the things we let go; how to try to make sense of being a person in this world.”

Aaron Burch is many things to many people but mostly known as a teacher and a writer but to some he’s a live-music fan and divorced dude yet a jovial person nonetheless who writes like he talks, about anything and everything, and he ponders so much—the universe!—and is able to jot these ponderings down as easily as baking a pie (is baking a pie really that easy?!?!) while making you laugh and contemplate your place in said universe and think about things like the afterlife, helping a deer stuck in a fence, what it’s like to cut down a tree in the middle of campus with a chainsaw, looking cool in photos for social media even though he doesn’t want to look cool in photos, learning to ollie on a skateboard, or riding bikes with his buddy, or, or, so many things, but he does it with style and class and humor and thoughtfulness and it’s almost like he’s writing fiction but it’s not fiction because it’s his real life, but it sounds like fiction and it feels like fiction and did you know (he teaches fiction???) or rather do you care to know that he’s written several books and they’re all great, but especially this one because it’s short and zippy and funny; and you won’t want it to end because life after the pandemic seems rather pointless and it’s nice to just... laugh.

This book made me laugh, a lot.

I enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.

Buy the paperback on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9781957392202