Ron Charles

The Unbearable Burdens of Childhood

Chang-rae Lee’s “A Tender Age” takes the despair of a boy seriously.

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Ron Charles
Aug 18, 2026
∙ Paid

The Tuesday Review

(Riverhead Books)

Chang-rae Lee’s new novel, A Tender Age, recalls a period of childhood freedom impossible for today’s iPhone-toting kids — or their anxious parents — to imagine.

“In our 1970s town,” Lee writes, “the adults, for whatever reason, whether they were working a job or not, left us to our own, and to one another.”

It’s true. A…

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