Synopses & Reviews
This book is for the once, never, and much married. For believers and skeptics, love's fools and love's thieves. It is for people with long memories and long histories and for people who reinvent themselves in every new town, new decade, new relationship. This book is for everyone whose heart lies where it should, where it shouldn't, and, in the end, where it must. -Amy Bloom, from the Foreword
In these intensely personal essays, contemporary writers probe their experiences in and thoughts about one of our most enduring social and cultural institutions. Husbands and wives celebrate marriages that work, mourn those that don't, and write frankly about adultery. Includes essays by Mark Doty, Gerald Early, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cynthia Heimel, Vivian Gornick, Phillip Lopate, Nancy Mairs, and David Mamet.
Review
"[A] short, piquant anthology on a subject of (almost) universal interest....[H]ighly personal pieces...offering some terrifically wry and insightful observations....[An] absorbing collection..." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[T]hese essays are intriguing, entertaining and well-written." ForeWord Magazine
Synopsis
In these intensely personal essays, contemporary writers probe their experiences in and thoughts about one of our most enduring social and cultural institutions. Husbands and wives celebrate marriages that work, mourn those that don't, and write frankly about adultery. Confirmed bachelors and independent feminists write about what led them to marry; others explore the unexpected happiness they found in solitude, or how, by transgressing the boundaries of their marriages, they arrived at new understandings of marriage and deeper bonds with their mates.
Includes essays by Mark Doty, Gerald Early, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cynthia Heimel, Vivian Gornick, Phillip Lopate, Nancy Mairs, and David Mamet.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise 1
Why It Might Be Worth It (to Have an Affair) 6
Between Men and Women 9
It Takes a Hell of a Man to Replace No Man at All 14
Beware of Mr. Right 17
Empathy-Challenged and Proud 22
Going to the Temple 27
How I Bought My Wedding Ring 33
Serial Lover 46
Homeward Bound 50
Adultery 57
Monogamy and Its Perils 61
This Is My Last Affair 68
Strange Perfume 74
On Living Alone 97
Here: Grace 110
An Exile's Psalm 129
For Better or Worse 157
Here Lies My Heart 165
For Better and Worse 178
Credits 203
Contributors 206
Acknowledgment 210