The Honeymoon's Over
True Stories of Love, Marriage, and Divorce
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In the bestselling tradition of The Bitch in the House comes a provocative collection of essays by prominent women writers on their own marriages-and why they chose to leave or stay.
Isabel Rose saw red flags before her marriage, but everyone thought she'd made a perfect match. Ann Hood's relationship with her husband had the usual bumps, until the tragic death of her young daughter forged their bond for life.When Terry McMillan went through her public divorce, the trauma affected everyone in her life.While Joyce Maynard cared for her dying mother, her children's babysitter took even better care of her husband. Andrea Chapin, after years of money battles with her musician husband, realized she had to become the mogul in the family. Annie Echols found her marriage on the rocks when an unexpected pregnancy upset her family's delicate balance. In THE HONEYMOON'S OVER, women candidly discuss the good times, the bad times, and what makes or breaks a marriage in essays that will resonate with readers-married, single, or divorced.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Freelance editor Chapin and literary agent Wofford-Girand gather essays by 21 women writers who dish about their troubled marriages. The suicide of her violent ex-husband renders Debra Magpie Earling gun-shy of future romances, and Lee Montgomery contemplates infidelity on a flirtatious ski weekend with her former college boyfriend while her trusting husband of 20 years is off visiting his ill father. Elissa Minor Rust's commitment to her husband is unwavering despite her break from the Mormon Church that once was their union's bedrock; an unplanned pregnancy threatens Annie Echols's marriage; and Daniela Kuper battles a religious guru for child custody. Although candid and heartfelt, many of these essays are unpolished, rambling and poorly edited, like Zelda Lockhart's saga of coming into her own as a lesbian and a mother. Another low is Terry McMillan's vulgar rant about an ex-husband, who admitted to homosexual exploits on national television. The two best pieces are self-knowing, gutsy and carefully crafted: Joyce Maynard confesses how her earlier infidelity nibbled away at a lonely marriage that abruptly ended when her husband slept with the babysitter while she was away caring for her dying mother; and Ann Hood proves that a loving marriage can miraculously survive a child's death.
