Customer Reviews

The Marriage Diaries: A Novel

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Extraordinarily witty characters grapple with the ordinary challenges of marriage and monogamy. Sub-plots include diffculties with parenting and working. The conclusion was a bit too fast and tidy.

Truly a funny and witty novel. Had a definite air of real life nitty gritty.
Fun and interesting. I'll read it again, just to catch all the wit.

Basically this was a first person account and then it shifted slightly to the male's perspective, as told through his journals. I just didn't care too much for it because of this and the fact that the heroine was so wishy washy. I was a bit shocked that she did what she did and with a friend. Seemed like a betrayal on so many levels. I know that some of the day to day things that transpired for the stay at home dad are accurate but I don't believe the stay at home parent is necessarily tempted to stray outside the marriage nor should the bread winner. Just seemd that the roles were totally flipped from the stereotypical roles that we set up for one another in today's society.

I thought the title of this book was pretty dull, but the concept was interesting. Wife Celeste comes across husband Sean's journal on his hard drive and starts reading it. Her therapist encourages her to start a "counter-journal" where she records her reactions to Sean's musings. Eventually, Sean upgrades their operating system and she's not able to read his diary anymore, but she keeps working on her own.

Sean and Celeste are under the strain of raising a baby; Celeste elected to stay at her job, while Sean is a stay-at-home dad. Sean's eye starts to wander in his "yummy mummy" playgroup, and Celeste, acting out a bit after she reads about his attraction to one of the mommies, strikes up a dalliance with her friend's boyfriend.

The characters definitely did not behave sympathetically at all times. However, they felt real to me (Sean more so than Celeste). The chapters from Sean's point of view were particularly well written. Celeste was selfish but up-front about it. If the whole book had been written from Celeste's perspective, it might not have been worth reading. But Sean's sections were engaging and compelling. It almost felt like the book was written by 2 different people...which it may have been. In her acknowledgments, the author thanked her husband, also a writer, for contributing his "wit and wisdom" to the Sean chapters.

Rebecca Campbell's two previous novels, Slave To Fashion and Slave To Love, have won the hearts of the "chick lit" genre. This time, however, she has slightly drifted away from the light and easy genre and wrote a book that has a little more depth and which exploits the difficult subject of infidelity in marriage.

The main characters, Celeste and Sean, are faced with everyday problems and many challenges of married life. The honeymoon stage of their relationship has been long forgotten and they both experience unhealthy routines and stress of everyday life. Both Celeste and Sean crave something more from their marriage but they do not really know how to approach their problems.

One day Celeste stumbles across Sean's secret journal in which he first describes his everyday and somehow boring life as a stay-at-home dad, but then goes on describing his fascination with another woman. Celeste soon is plotting a little revenge, which takes a less-than-expected course and brings on even more complications in their already difficult situation. Will their marriage survive?

The Marriage Diaries is an excellent study of a marriage. It shows a lot of emotions and explains reasons behind some of the actions that the main characters decided to take. The book shows that the relationship problems and issues are not always black and white. There is usually more behind what's on the surface. I really enjoyed the book, and I was very pleasantly surprised that the book was so much unlike the two previous ones. I'm very curious what is Campbell's next surprise.

Armchair Interviews says: A well-done change of pace for this author.

Celeste and Sean are a married couple who are complete opposites. She loves fashion and works in the industry, is neat, and trendy, and he abhors being in fashion, is sloppy, eccentric, and is a stay-at-home dad. But somehow they have put aside their differences and seem to have the perfect marriage, or do they? Celeste seems to have opened a can of worms when she accidentally discovers Sean's private journal and reads his unfavorable ramblings on herself and finds that her husband is attracted to another woman. She keeps secretly reading his journal and starts her own counterjournal in rebuttal of Sean's ramblings about the birth of their son, Harry, and the first weeks of parenthood. Will fidelity win against desire and will this young marriage survive its first big test?

**** As a female reader, I thoroughly enjoyed Celeste's written admonishments to Sean's entries and his and her impressions on the events of their marriage where the truth probably lies somewhere in between their one-sided versions. Sean's witty recounts of caring for Harry were very entertaining. I enjoyed Rebecca Campbell's novel on the trials and triumphs of married life and commitment. ****

Reviewed by Barbara Stabler for Huntress Reviews.