54 pages • 1-hour read
Half His Age
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Chapters 66-88Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes sexual content and depictions of child sexual abuse, sexual violence, emotional abuse, and substance use.
Chapter 66 Summary
Korgy texts Waldo last minute about hanging out. Waldo digs through the backup clothing and makeup she keeps in her car for moments like these and changes before they meet up. At Korgy’s house, he compliments Waldo’s appearance before telling her they “don’t have long” (207), something he’s said a lot.
Upstairs, Korgy tells Waldo he doesn’t mind having sex while she’s on her period. She feels aroused seeing her blood on his penis and insists he hit her in the face with it. Waldo appreciates how disgusting the encounter is, convinced this is why they work together.
Just as he starts penetrating her again, Gwen’s voice calls for Korgy from downstairs. A panicked Korgy demands that Waldo hide in the closet. She watches through the crack in the door as Korgy gets into a relaxed position on the bed—pretending he’s relaxing with headphones on and can’t hear Gwen. Gwen is annoyed at first, but then assumes he is watching pornography and tries to join him, taking off her shirt and attempting to initiate sex. Korgy makes an excuse, and she excuses herself to the bathroom to shower. Inside the closet, Waldo is bleeding into her hand. Korgy opens the door, and she notices a bloodstain on the carpet.
Chapter 67 Summary
Waldo breaks up with Korgy, insisting their relationship isn’t working for her. Korgy is confused and begs her not to end it. Waldo goes on to say this isn’t what she wants anymore and that he’s never going to leave his family for her. She promises she won’t make a scene, assuring him she doesn’t want anything else from him. A defeated Korgy leans into Waldo and cries over how much he loves and needs her. Waldo feels numb.
Chapter 68 Summary
Throughout the week following the breakup, Korgy incessantly texts and calls Waldo. He leaves numerous voicemails, too. He begs Waldo to meet up and talk so he can explain himself. He insists he’s worried about her when she doesn’t respond.
Finally, he sends a lengthy text, detailing all of the reasons he married Gwen, how dissatisfied he has been for years, and how happy she’s made him. Waldo replies, saying he’s never going to end his marriage for her. He insists he’s breaking up with Gwen “tomorrow.” The next day, he texts her to meet up at a ritzy hotel because he broke up with Gwen. Waldo says she’ll be there if he’s on time.
Chapter 69 Summary
Waldo and Korgy meet up at the Captain Cook that night. Korgy wilts into Waldo, sobbing over how hard his breakup was. She comforts him, and he falls asleep.
Chapter 70 Summary
Waldo lies awake with Korgy sleeping against her. She studies his sleeping form. She reflects on their relationship, realizing she has what she’s “wanted for so long” (225).
Chapter 71 Summary
Waldo and Korgy spend the next day in the hotel together. They order room service and have sex. Then they go out for food and a movie. They spend a lot of time saying everything they’ve wanted to say and never could.
However, they quickly start lapsing into silence, which makes Waldo uncomfortable. At the end of the day, Korgy says he hopes Waldo isn’t tired of him; she tries dismissing the knot in her stomach.
Chapter 72 Summary
Waldo is unimpressed by Korgy’s new motel room, but assures him the rented space is fine. He has officially moved out and needs time to find a new place.
Chapter 73 Summary
Waldo spends the next three days at the motel with Korgy. On day three, she needs some space and tries taking a solo walk, but Korgy insists on joining.
Chapter 74 Summary
Waldo continues spending every night with Korgy after she gets off from work. One night, she arrives to find the motel room filled with boxes. Korgy explains that Gwen made him collect all of his things. He insists this new phase is good for him, and he’s even started writing his half-finished novel again.
Chapter 75 Summary
A few weeks later, Waldo returns home for the first time to collect some things. She is shocked to find her mother there, cleaning; the apartment is spotless. Her mother announces that she and Tony broke up, but her coworker Margie introduced her to a sex-and-love-anonymous group. She tells Waldo all the great things she’s learned and how different she feels.
Chapter 76 Summary
Waldo helps Korgy move into his new apartment. She watches as he hangs movie and novel posters and exclaims over how much freedom he has. He thanks Waldo for always letting him be himself.
Chapter 77 Summary
One night, Waldo doesn’t feel like having sex with Korgy; it is the first time she’s felt uninterested. He insists it’s fine, and they attempt to go for a swim instead, but the pool is closed. They order pizza, and Waldo waits for the food on the bed, wondering if she should try initiating sex again, but decides not to.
Chapter 78 Summary
Over the following weeks, Waldo and Korgy fall into a routine. Waldo keeps staying with Korgy. He has started cooking. If he doesn’t make dinner, they order takeout. They usually watch movies that Waldo doesn’t care about. They have sex and eat midnight snacks before brushing their teeth.
Waldo soon realizes she feels stifled. To quell her unease, she starts shopping online again, desperate for something more.
Chapter 79 Summary
During sex with Korgy one morning, Waldo feels how performative their dynamic is. When Waldo isn’t aroused, Korgy reassures her, but Waldo feels bothered. This happens several times. Waldo learns to play her part and feign interest.
Chapter 80 Summary
Waldo spends an afternoon at her apartment alone. She is supposed to go over to Korgy’s for dinner but gets involved painting her nails, doing her makeup, and digging through her collection of cosmetics. When Korgy texts, she puts him off, pretending that she is busy but on her way. She lets herself get distracted, ultimately telling Korgy she can’t make it. She senses his frustration through his texts.
Chapter 81 Summary
Waldo helps her mother get ready for an outing with her sponsor. She tells Waldo about working toward 60 days of no contact with men. She is positive about how well she’s doing and insists she and Waldo are finally going to take that drive to Seward.
Chapter 82 Summary
After a long shift one night, Waldo returns home to find Korgy drunk and upset. He scolds her for wasting her time at Victoria’s Secret and rotting her brain watching Survivor. Waldo insists she doesn’t care about the same things he does, reminding him that she is 18. Korgy bursts out in anger. When Waldo tries to leave, Korgy apologizes, insisting he’s only upset with himself. They make amends.
Chapter 83 Summary
Chapter 84 Summary
Korgy is drinking alone again when Waldo returns home. He tells her he stopped writing his novel, now convinced he should give up on being a writer altogether.
Chapter 85 Summary
The next day, Waldo returns home to find cute signs and messages from Korgy. At the end of the little trail of notes, Korgy reveals that he bought them tickets to Hawaii. Waldo isn’t sure this will fix things between them but feigns excitement.
Chapter 86 Summary
Waldo and Korgy go to the airport for their trip. They sit at the gate and wait for the flight. Waldo goes into the bathroom at the last minute, taking her time. Korgy frantically texts her that the flight is boarding, but Waldo doesn’t reply and doesn’t try to move any faster. Finally, she takes her bag and leaves the airport.
Chapter 87 Summary
Waldo takes a cab home, horrified to walk in on her mother and Tony having sex. Waldo initially feels upset, but then realizes it isn’t worth it. She silently leaves the house.
Chapter 88 Summary
Waldo gets into her car with her packed bags and drives to Seward. Things haven’t turned out as expected, but she feels satisfied for once.
Chapters 66-88 Analysis
Waldo and Korgy’s repeated breakups and reunions complicate the novel’s theme of The Impact of Loneliness and Longing on Coming of Age. Ever since Waldo started seeing Korgy, she has convinced herself that she has everything she needs. She wants to feel satisfied with Korgy because her life is devoid of any other forms of intimacy. Her relationship with Frannie almost entirely falls by the wayside, and her mother is almost entirely absent from her life.
When she breaks up with Korgy after the climactic scene where Gwen almost catches them together at the house, Waldo is trying to assert that she doesn’t need Korgy; however, her loneliness and longing soon compel her back into Korgy’s arms. Their relationship patterns reiterate Korgy’s abusive hold over Waldo, conveying how his exploitation of her vulnerability has confused her ability to come of age in a typical, healthy manner. It is natural for Waldo to crave companionship, validation, and encouragement, but Korgy distorts Waldo’s ability to pursue these things on her own terms and with people who know her value and are age-appropriate for her.
Waldo’s behavioral patterns in these final narrative sequences begin to resemble her patterns at the novel’s start, forcing a cyclical structure on the novel which points to Waldo’s possible regression into Consumerism as an Emotional Placeholder. Waldo starts lapsing into online shopping sprees and obsessive self-care regimens again to force the illusion of satisfaction. At the novel’s start, Waldo mindlessly eats junk food and purchases shopping carts full of things she doesn’t need. Her behaviors are driven by impulse and a lack of true forethought. By this point in the novel, however, Waldo is self-aware enough to understand why she is doing what she is doing. She knows that Korgy is using her to escape his own dissatisfaction, but continues to go along with their dynamic without protest. She tries to silence her awareness and longing because she remains afraid of it. The more mundane her life with Korgy becomes, the more trapped she feels; the more trapped she feels, the more she needs her own forms of escape.
Her affair with Korgy previously offered this illusion of liberation, their sexual dynamic particularly transporting her away from the pain of her daily life and to a more pleasurable place. However, when sex becomes uninteresting and spending time with Korgy becomes stifling, Waldo turns back to her old vices. Each time, she hopes to “stave off the boredom and whatever lies underneath it” (247). Waiting for her purchases to arrive in the mail also gives her an old, familiar high she feels she needs to get through her otherwise daunting emotions. Waldo wants something better; she wants more than what she can buy, but she is still learning to ask for it.
Waldo’s ultimate decision to leave Korgy sets her free, as she finally recognizes and rejects The Inherent Harm in Adult-Child Relationships. The novel’s resolution uses irony. Waldo and Korgy are supposed to be leaving on the ultimate romantic getaway to Hawaii, a trip Korgy has fantasized about them taking for months. Instead, Waldo hides in the airport bathroom and misses the flight. Although she plans to respond to Korgy’s texts, “my body won’t let me. It’s frozen. I try to override it, to shove my body’s instincts down […] Only I can’t. And beyond that. I don’t want to” (270). For the first time, Waldo is unable to override what her instincts are telling her. Her body physically takes her away: Instead of heading off on an island getaway, Waldo ends up taking the short drive to Seward, just down the coast from her home in Anchorage.
The closing scene of Waldo driving is the ultimate act of defiance and liberation. She has left Korgy and decided not to wait for her mother to take the Seward drive. She is on her own, but this time, her lack of companionship feels like independence rather than loneliness. Solitude empowers her to be herself, follow her desires, and meet her own needs.
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