From Library Journal
Two thirtysomething editors at Beacon Press had a conversation one day about marriage and thought others would be interested in the topic, too. They selected 20 essays, previously published in places like GQ, Ms., and Harpers, by contemporary American writers including Amy Hempel, Joel Achenbach, and Gerald Early. These contributors relate their own experiences with marriage, infidelity, divorce, singlehood, and relationships with the opposite sex. Edward Hoagland describes his love life from his a little late loss of virginity through two divorces in Strange Perfume. Louise DeSalvo (see Writing as a Way of Healing, reviewed on p. 110) tells how her husbands infidelity shocked her and led her to become a new person in Adultery. Willie Morris, in the title essay, describes the heart-rending pain of divorce. In For Better and Worse, Lynn Darling details the ups and downs of marriage. For larger or specialized public or academic collections.Nancy P. Shires, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, NC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Heres that rarity: a short, piquant anthology on a subject of (almost) universal interest. Chasman and Jhee, Beacon editors, bring together highly personal pieces by 21 contemporary American writers (e.g., Barbara Ehrenreich, David Mamet, Willie Morris) offering some terrifically wry and insightful observations about how difficult it is to make a success of marriage and domestic life, given our culture of careerist individualism. Invariably, some silly and superficial me-oriented things also get said, as by memoirist Louise DeSalvo: I have come to see the impulse towards adultery as the selfs yearning to realize its latent potential. But for the most part, the reflections here appear to be the fruit of considerable thought following much emotional wear-and-tear. For example, Vivian Gornick writes of the alternating joys and sorrows of living alone; several other contributors depict scenes of love and loss, whether through a partners infidelity, divorce, or death. The most moving piece, Mark Dotys An Exiles Psalm, concerns the authors attempt both to mourn his long-time lover, who died of AIDS, and to exult in the unexpected joy of a new relationship. Many writers allude to adultery, potential or actual, liberating or tormented. Yet Chasman and Jhee have included not a single autobiographical essay on that most elusive and enviable feat, a relatively long and happy marriage; perhaps it was difficult to find a writer to describe such an experience. Still, the majority of men and women still feel they can defy the oddswhy? Essayist Gerald Early replies, Marriage, in its barbarous civility, in its impossible dependence and impossible expectation, assures one that in the vast meaninglessness of the world, one can . . . hope to find the true rudder of meaning, at last. Whether theres meaning to be found, or merely emotional coldness after a marital rift, love and marriage continue to fire the imagination, as this absorbing collection attests. --
Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
