Amazing to read this right after her earlier memoir, Half a Life. There’s much more context here, and I feel like I understand her and her relationship with Arnold better. I still don’t know what to think of the forming of the relationship (does that many years of marriage make up for the age difference, that she was a teenager when they first kissed?) but I’m satisfied. Thank you to netgalley!

Incredibly nuanced, brave and tender, all at once.
I’ve possibly never before read something so unflinchingly honest about the inevitable outcome of falling in love—one day, you will have to watch them die.
I finished in bed, next to my partner, and immediately sobbed into my hands.
What a privilege to have an author like Jill. To celebrate a novel like this enter the world.

This was a quick read that interrogated and analyzed the author's relationship with her life partner, a man decades older than her who was formerly her art teacher. The relationship began in the 1970s when she was 16 and he was 47 and played out as any traditional marriage or long-term partnership would. "Consent" also looks back on Ciment's "Half a Life: A Memoir," an earlier book which includes the relationship, parsing through fact, fiction and sometimes unreliable memories to draw out a larger, more true story. The result is a book that is not salacious — no romanticizing of the "age-gap" — or regretful. The author is clear-eyed about the perceptions and realities of being a much-younger woman partnered with an older man, and simply shares the details of her experience for the reader.

Thanks, NetGalley and Pantheon for sharing a reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Beautifully written, provocatively thoughtful, this memoir was a surprise. I read it quickly, captivated by the writer's inquisitive voice delving into her own story -- I was curious alongside her to sort out why she did what she did. On the surface, it does seem sordid, but in the end it read like a true love story. It was definitely a peek back into a different time and often I found myself thinking this could never happen now (at least not legally). I didn't want to like the characters, and yet they charmed me. There is so much to discuss here beyond the story itself-- like the authenticity of the writer and how it changes with time. As your perspective shifts, so does your story.

Loved this memoir so much. What a moving end. A great study for budding memoirists, too. Loved it and look forward to talking with Jill on my podcast, Writers on Writing.

I was very excited to read this because I had read her first memoir about her childhood and early marriage to her much older art teacher and then I had read that she was revisiting that during after looking at things a different way after his death and the #metoo movement.

It was short but it didn’t disappoint. I would have liked a tiny bit more reflection at the end, I felt like it ended abruptly but it was interesting how she looked at her memory and what was truthful and what might have been just how she wishes things were or thought in the moment.

Jill Ciment has written a raw intimate memoir sharing her love affair that began when she was a teenager.He was her art teacher a married man with two children.and their love affair consumed their lives.Jill Ciments writing has always drawn me in this revealing story of her personal life is a shocking read so well written a brilliant read.#netgalley #consent

Excellent Book! Very meaningful story of raw truth. I have read many memoirs. Jill Ciment lets the reader into her unique life with such honesty. What was clever as she recounts her past addressing the inaccuracies of memory, boldly admitting this to the reader. As her age at different times the author has to revisit details as her younger self. I found to be transparent and brutally honest. I have read The body in question. Which is one of my favorite books, that I recommend. I’m so glad I got an early opportunity to read this one! Thank you.

Different.
Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

Jill Ciment is brutally honest and reflective in the best of ways.
It’s a memoir I won’t forget.
I had read “The Body in Question” … and loved it…
I had been planning on reading more by Jill…
and now having read “Consent”, I plan to read everything she has published…. and soon!
I love her!!!

“Consent”, is deeply personal …and I was glued to it.
At only 160 pages long — I hesitate to say much — but I highly recommend it …
As a woman myself - almost 72 years of age -I did a lot of soul looking into my own past….as I read “Consent”.

It’s such a brilliant book — really brilliant…. It needs to be experienced… (I plan to read it again)
Jill’s asked some very real deep questions….
taking a good hard look at the choices she made, or situations she found herself in three decades ago and compares them to today.
She reevaluates her decades long marriage to the 47-year-old man she met when she was seventeen, revisiting, a singular passion, in the 21st-century aftermath of me too.

I’ll leave this one quote to think about….(person read it several times)…
“Does a stories ending excuse its beginning? Does a kiss in one moment mean something else entirely five decades later? Can a love that starts with such an asymmetrical balance of power ever right itself?”

5 strong stars!!!

I am drawn to books just like Consent. When I read the description, I knew I would enjoy it. Well, I loved it! Ciment did a great job telling her story about the attraction she had with her much older art teacher and the life that she has with him. I found it to be a quick story and one that I didn't want to put down. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.