The Average American Marriage

At last, the long-awaited sequel to The Average American Male — a new novel marking the return of Chad Kultgen's blithely and unforgettably raunchy narrator... now married with children.

Five years ago, Chad Kultgen's first novel, The Average American Male, was launched to a storm of controversy — fueled in part by a viral video campaign that garnered international media attention. To the prim and prudish, the novel — with its callous yet charismatically womanizing narrator — was an outrage. To a surprisingly broad array of readers, however, The Average American Male became a sensation.

In the years since, The Average American Male has become a cult classic, embraced by readers — including many women — who recognize the unflinching, uncomfortable truth behind Kultgen's satirical take on the world. Now, five years (and innumerable outrages) later, Kultgen's narrator is back. He still revels in objectifying women, killing time with video games, and stealing any remaining idle moments to pleasure himself. Now, however, the Average American Male must face life as a married man — an existence that resembles everything his readers will remember from The Average American Male. As his world collapses around him, Kultgen's uproarious narrator looks upon the institution of marriage with the same deadpan smirk he has brought to the rest of his sex-addled, perennially disaffected life.

As blithely outrageous as its precursor, The Average American Marriage takes satire to new depths of cockeyed depravity — while adding another chapter to Kultgen's unique take on the never-ending battle of the sexes.

The Average American Marriage, the long-awaited sequel to Chad Kultgen’s much debated, always controversial The Average American Male, is a matter-of-fact foray into the male mind and sexual fantasy.

Now married with children, Kultgen's lewd and sex-obsessed narrator once again offers up his deep (and not so deep) thoughts on love, marriage, kids, and (naturally) sex: from birthday sex to interns to parenting, The Average American Male looks upon the institution of marriage with the same deadpan smirk he has brought to the rest of his sex-addled, perennially disaffected life.

Forthright and unashamed, Chad Kultgen is not afraid to "go there" with blunt language and imagery, offering up a spot-on portrait of how some men view their marriages. The Average American Marriage is the book everyone will be talking about around the water cooler, in line at the grocery store... and in the bedroom.

In the beginning, there was The Average American Male.

Maxim called it "pure filth."

Even Penthouse called it "appalling."

The New York Times called it "the literary love child of Neil LaBute, Judy Blume, and Eminem."

Now, Chad Kultgen's unforgettable antihero is back — this time as a married man.

I can feel something hot twisting and burning in the pit of my stomach. For a fleeting moment I think back to a time when I was with Casey, my girlfriend before Alyna.... I tried to initiate something by grabbing her tit and kissing her when we walked through her front door. She turned to me and said something about how our relationship didn't always have to be about sex. I remember how much I wanted to smash something when she said that, how much I wanted to scream in her face that our relationship was only about sex.... Relationships between men and women are only about sex. The rest of the sh*t is incidental.

Welcome back.

Chad Kultgen graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts. His novels include The Average American Male, The Lie, and Men, Women & Children. He lives in California.