Outdated: A Novel

by Nathan Wolff

Twenty-two-year-old graduate student Joe Charnoff is desperate to share his life with the right girl, but can't even get himself a date. Sharon Gilboa is so tired of watching her best friend Joe constantly fail that it's spoiling her attempts at meeting her match. When one day Joe's boss hands him the phone number that holds the answer to his search, he soon finds everything he's been looking for-but will he have to betray Sharon to get it? Is she ready to do whatever it takes for Joe's happiness?

Outdated is a novel about how matchmaking works to get singles married in the twenty-first century and live happily ever after. While there are many ways men and women get together, matchmaking has been bringing couples together for centuries and remains the optimal method for ensuring their longevity and marital bliss. Every facet of its method, both obvious and subtle, is intended to facilitate the development of the emotional relationship that is the core of a successful marriage. Behind the backdrop of the story of Joe and Sharon, Outdated describes the reasons and theory of every step of the matchmaking process and other potential pitfalls people encounter trying to find their soul mate.

276 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 10, 2016

Reviews

[Leora · Rating 3 out of 5]

In general, this was an interesting read: Orthodox Jewish dating through a conventional-turned-unconventional lens. The descriptive tones as well as the protagonist's irregular narrative gives it that something extra I don't normally see in independently-published novels. I also really liked how the male characters were written so vulnerably. The dialogue didn't particularly move me. I found a few aspects of it, (overuse of sports analogies, predictable conversations), as a contribution to why I didn't rush through the chapters. The female characters weren't written as dimensionally as I would've liked; this really struck a nerve. I couldn't understand how little compliance and intelligence was attributed to them, but so much of a stereotypically-girly presence remained. (However, I want to believe Wolff's heart was in the right place). My takeaway: 'Outdated' is somewhat enjoyable, has a good way with world-building, but in my opinion, slightly gears from progression.