By Emanual Martinez

In the book half a life, a memoir about 18 year old Darrin Strauss who was inside of his Oldsmobile going out to hit rounds of putt-putt when we hit and killed 16 year old Celine Zilke. In the beginning of the book it tells how bad he felt inside, and also the way the parents felt too. During the funeral, the mother of Celine Zilke told Darrin that anything he did, he would have to do it for two people. Darrin decided to try to escape his problems by going to college but the bad things that happened that day did not only fallow him to college, it affected him in everything that he did. Inside he felt torn. Throughout the whole book he explains the emotions that he was overwhelmed with as they happened. Towards the middle of the book Darrin finds his soon to be wife in college and she tells him that he has to let the crash go. Then he comes to find out he is being sued for money by the Zilke Family. All this causes more stress for him since now he has to deal with being accused of murder. In this book it explains to readers what difficulties he had to pass to live through this tragic moment in his life. It’s something he will live with forever and has to face the fact that it wasn’t his fault. Also, it explains how he came to overcome what happened, but not only for him but for his children and wife. For some people it was a good book and helped them overcome any problems facing them today.