The Hitched Chick's Guide to Modern Marriage: Essential Advice for Staying Single-minded and Happily Married [Paperback]

Mandi Norwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2004

The marriage revolution is at hand--it's going on right now, led by a new generation of married women who crave independence and adventure just as much as they crave commitment. With her fifteen years of experience at top women's magazines, Mandi Norwood hosts the perfect girls' night out, revealing married women's most intimate confessions from more than one hundred in-depth interviews. Sometimes hilarious, often tender, and always empowering, this smart, sexy, candid guide offers from-the-heart, savvy, and practical advice about every aspect of modern marriage from power, controlling money, and omigod-the-mother-in-law, to brazen behavior in bed.It's something entirely different-sexier, more independent and definitely more complicated. The balance of power has not just shifted, it's off its axis entirely.

Mandi Norwood has tapped into the new beast that is modern marriage to deliver straight talk about what really happens: at the dinner table, over the checkbook and in the bedroom. In over one hundred interviews with these new-fashioned wives-hitched chicks-Norwood learned not just what women in marriages today want but how they get it. She found an energetic, adventurous generation whose intimate confessions add up to a hilarious and very candid night out with the girls.

"High-voltage advice right out of Pandora's Box."-Lauren Stover, author of THE BOMBSHELL MANUAL OF STYLE

"As soon as he slips the ring on your finger, find this book and read it cover to cover. It's the must-have-how-to manual for marriage."-Lucy Danziger, editor-in-chief, Self

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This marriage primer is a perfect gift for the newly married girl or bride-to-be."
- Publishers Weekly

"High-voltage advice right out of Pandora's Box."
- Lauren Stover, author of The Bombshell Manual of Style

"As soon as he slips the ring on your finger, find this book and read it cover to cover. It's the must-have-how-to manual for marriage."
- Lucy Danziger, editor-in-chief, Self

"This kick-ass book should be first on every wedding gift list."
- Anna Maxted, author of Running In Heels

" Norwood puts women on top, and just that makes you want to cheer."
- Anna Maxted, author of Running In Heels

"Chock-full of story and anecdote, it's as full of gory details as a night in with the gals."
- Image

"The Hitched Chicks Guide to Modern Marriage is all about being young, happily married and still getting it on. Hurrah!"
- The Evening Standard

"It's a scandal...laced with common sense."
- Lauren Stover, author of The Bombshell Manual of Style

"Norwood proudly presents a line-up of women who have cheerfully jettisoned docility and domesticity for married lives which focus on themselves."- The Times

About the Author

Mandi Norwood is an award-winning women's magazine editor. She has been the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan (U.K.) and Mademoiselle. She is hitched, with two children, and lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; Revised edition (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312312148
• ISBN-13: 978-0312312145
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,967,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not all bad, February 18, 2005

By 

A reader (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hitched Chick's Guide to Modern Marriage: Essential Advice for Staying Single-minded and Happily Married (Paperback)

There are some inspiring moments in this book. The women interviewed are independent in every way and it's interesting to read about the appeal of such a 'traditional' institution to people who have a refreshingly non-traditional approach to relationships.

With that said, Mandi Norwood has an unpleasantly condescending attitude to her mother's generation. Once in a while she grudgingly acknowledges their efforts as mothers and their contribution to women's growing status. Generally though, she presents them as weak-willed and blinkered. The section on 'mothers in law' seems particularly insulting.

Mandi Norwood is at her best when celebrating a new equality in marriage. However she also celebrates attitudes by women which seem just as overbearing and domineering as the men of her mother's generation. There's the woman who announces that she's moving to Europe without the slightest sense that her husband's feelings need discussing. He gets the choice of staying in the US or going with her, but she expresses no preference and no interest in his views. He goes with her and has a miserable time, but this doesn't seem to cause any concern.

Then there's the 'Hitched Chick' who decides to go travelling for a year. She generously allows her husband the option of coming with her, but again doesn't express a preference for whether he comes or stays at home. Nor does she express any interest in how he feels about her decision. If a husband behaved like this he would rightly be considered boorish and domineering. But for Mandi Norwood, this is just as it should be for 'Hitched Chicks'.

There's also the bizarre episode where one woman demands and gets a fabulous engagement ring. This is celebrated as evidence of her strength of character. Her fiance's generosity apparently has nothing to do with it. The idea that in this age of equality he might get an engement gift in return is not even considered.

In her own commentary, Mandi Norwood manages to paint an uplifting picture of modern marriage as a genuine partnership. But she also contradicts herself by wholeheartedly endorsing women who treat the views and feelings of their husbands as completely irrelevant.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Biased and preachy, March 19, 2005

By 

Louie2 "cajunyalie" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hitched Chick's Guide to Modern Marriage: Essential Advice for Staying Single-minded and Happily Married (Paperback)

The singularly important flaw in this tome is the extreme attitude with which the author approaches marriage. Although the title and book jacket promise a book with across-the-political-spectrum appeal, Norwood is obviously far less "traditional" in her beliefs than most middle-of-the-road American brides. For example, in her discussion of name changes, she devotes page after page of diatribe against such an outdated system, and only a single line (not even a sentence) reminding women that name changes are an option. In fact, well over three-quarters of married American women change their names--is Norwood just totally ignorant of the prevalence of that practice? For a book that aims for wide appeal, the vitriol was pretty un-called-for. Despite the consistency with which American mothers drop out of the workforce to care for their children full-time, Norwood derides stay-at-home moms; throughout the book she sniffs that concentrating on household management could only lead to depression and could never be as fulfilling as working outside the home. Norwood also seems to go much further than the hope that wives will be their hubands' equals--she seems to want the wives to hold all the cards in the relationship. In fact, she even titles one section, "What's Yours Is Ours, What's Mine Is My Own." Although she professes neutrality on the issues, she errs on the side of condoning such behavior as having extramarital affairs and hiding money from husbands. Overall, it is very clear that Norwood is "nontraditional" in a way most readers are not even close to being; as a result, readers who consider themselves conservative or middle-of-the-road will find this book deeply unsatisfying and even offensive (since the message seems to be that if you're at all conservative then you must not be a "modern" wife).
As an aside, I'd also like to point out that this book has only been published in the U.S. and uses U.S.-based statistics. The spelling is all American, and the core audience seems to be upper-middle-class American women. Why, then, is this book so riddled with Anglicisms? Toward the end of the book I definitely got sick of figuring out the meaning of words like "biscuits" and "bespoke," scratching my head over seemingly random capitalizations ("Realtor?") and reading quotes from women named Gemma.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A collection of bad marital advices, March 14, 2005

By 

A. Rizky "housewife" (Tokyo) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hitched Chick's Guide to Modern Marriage: Essential Advice for Staying Single-minded and Happily Married (Paperback)

The book starts with how supposedly miserable the marriages that our mothers had because these women put themselves after their husbands and children. It asserts the importance of retaining the wife's own identity as an individual by keeping her maiden name, her "me time", and her career. It also says that men should help with the household chores too because marriage is after all an equal partnership. I like this way of thinking so I decided to buy the book. But it continues with recommendation to have sex affairs with other men (and/or women as well!)in order to stay single-minded and happily married. It also recommends to have sex at least with 10-20 different men before you say 'I do' to your husband-will-be so you know what you're getting from him. And don't bother about your husband's feeling, you must tell him the exact number. I couldn't help but wonder what actually the author's definition of a successful marriage is.