The Age of Reason is a novel about betraying your own potential. I found it through this video by Zoë Winter, who calls it “a portrait of unlived potential.” She describes three days in which Mathieu refuses every commitment to protect his freedom and, in doing so, refuses to live his life. She opens with this passage from the book:
I have led a toothless life, he thought. A toothless life. I have never bitten into anything. I was waiting. I was reserving myself for later on. And I have just noticed that my teeth have gone.
She also brings up Steppenwolf and the fig tree from The Bell Jar, which have similar undertones. Having read The Bell Jar, I can see why.