Ever fallen for a story so short you finish it in a sitting, and yet feel its echo for days? That’s exactly what Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid does. This tiny ’70s-set epistolary literary fiction novella tricks you into thinking it’s an appetizer, then blindsides you with emotional heft and unanswered questions. Let me tell you why this one isn’t as simple as a quick read, and why that matters.

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What is Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid all about?

In less than 90 pages of letters from two strangers, we learn of a devastating affair between their spouses—and their secret correspondence becomes a raw, delicate thing. It’s a ’70s-set emotional duel played out in ink and longing, where liberation blooms in heartbreak.

Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid Book Review

Whenever Taylor Jenkins Reid has a new book coming out, I always get giddy with excitement.  When you crack open one of her books you know you’re in for a story that you haven’t read before, or at the very least it will be done in a very unique way.  I held off reading this for a while because I had heard how short it was and I will be honest, I don’t think most authors can do short stories well.  I think it’s a completely different way of writing to make me fall into a story that doesn’t have the page count to be fully fleshed out.  Some authors excel at this.  And even some of my favorite authors tank at it.  So I went into this book a little scared and came out oddly somewhere in the middle.

EVIDENCE OF THE AFFAIR by Taylor Jenkins Reid is basically a series of letters from one woman to a man she’s never met.  Set in the late seventies, a woman finds out her husband is having an affair and instead of confronting him she tracks down the woman he’s cheating with and discovers she’s married as well.  So she decides to inform that woman’s husband that their spouses are cheating.  The correspondence grows from there. That’s not much of a spoiler as you find this out in the blurb and the first letter.  But I won’t go into details of anything after that as the story is so short.

The concept of how this was written made it very compelling from the start.  You are only privy to the letters.  There can be so much happening in both of their lives that you don’t see.  But the author managed to keep me wanting to know more because of the format.  We weren’t getting the full picture and I needed the full picture.  I also think it worked really well setting it in the seventies as technology would’ve made this a completely different story and feel.

In the end though, with the writing style that I always enjoy and the fact that she managed to keep me wanting to know more, I wavered between giving this a 4 star rating because it’s very unique and settling on what I’m giving it now which is a 3.5.  The reason for that is that I found there could’ve been more done with it.  It felt like an appetizer that never fully satisfied me completely because I was waiting for the main course.  But that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.

Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid is not part of a series, it stands completely alone. That said, it does include a nod to Daisy Jones & the Six as a cultural reference, placing it lightly in Reid’s larger universe.

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