The Honeymoon's Over: True Stories of Love, Marriage, and Divorce

Short stories that are well presented and represent a host of situations - so one (or more) of them should apply to everyone who's been married. Nice to help you keep perspective, lots of different writing styles. Good to read 1-2 stories at a time and process what they have to offer.

I absolutely loved this book, and I am keeping it becauseI know I will read it again. As I approach my 27th wedding anniversary I feel as though I know quite a bit about what makes a marriage worth hanging on to. Nobody is married for a long time without going through major bumps in the road but many of the stories in this collection illustrate how rewarding it is to stick it out - what you end up with is so special that it is difficult to describe. Of course, not every relationship has a happy ending and I enjoyed those essays also. My personal favorite? The Electric Husband - hilarious. P.S. Terry McMillan's rage is hurting her MUCH, MUCH more than her ex-husband - anger is human but if you don't let go of it you will be poisoned by it.

It's rare that I enjoy a book as much as I did "The Honeymoon's Over". It is an amazingly frank and revealing look at marriage -- those that endure and those that end -- by a collection of women writers. Only a few (Ann Hood, Terry McMillan) were familiar to me when I bought it... strangely (or maybe not) those essays were the ones I got the least out of. What I love about so many of these essays is the chance the writers take in telling it like it is. A few risk seeming unlikable, which is what makes the writing so refreshing. A few highlights -- Joyce Maynard's "The Stories We Tell" in which, years after the fact, she acknowledges the role she played (and denied for years) in her divorce from an unfaithful husband. (Terry McMillan could learn a few things from this.) The gorgeous second chance at love story told by Debra Magpie Earling in "By This We Know Love." The marriage-for-wrong-reasons essay ("A Real Catch") by Isabel Rose, and the brutally honest struggling artists' piece ("The Last Gasp") by the collection's editor Andrea Chapin. The essays that didn't work are the ones where the authors seem to have not quite processed their experiences. I loved Ann Hood's "Do Not Go Gentle" (the story of her search for religious miracles for her dying father) and from knowing her work, I gasped when I read in "Love Me Do" that her young daughter died. This unspeakable tragedy, especially on the heels of losing both her beloved father and brother, is shocking. Why then is the essay so brief and cold? I suspect she is still in deep grief and denial, or was when she wrote it. On the other end of the spectrum, Terry McMillan's "100 Questions I Meant To Ask Him" is a myopic, rage-filled rant that left me wanting to hear her ex-husband's side of the story. I understand (on a certain level) why McMillan is bitter, but she crosses the line into hysteria in her piece. And the fact that much of the piece is homophobic is disturbing. I have a hard time believing that her husband's latent sexual orientation was the only thing that ended their 10 year marriage. All in all, though, "The Honeymoon's Over" was a great read. Most of the essays have new things to say, and all were page turners. I know it's early, but this one gets my vote for best of 2007.

I was genuinely surprised, as someone who is only planning her wedding, how much I could relate to in "The Honeymoon's Over." Single, divorced, young, or old, this will appeal to readers of any demographic. The narrators in this book are, simply put, human. And while each one presents a singular viewpoint and unique story (on the broadest level--some relationships succeed while others do not)--they also have a universal quality to them. Exquisite, painful, humorous, and redemptive--it's a book that doesn't fit neatly into any kind of classification. What is clear are the risks the authors are taking--both in their writing and in their lives--and as the reader I appreciated and often admired those risks. While relationships involve two people, this book shows that your own evolution (as well as the evolution of your relationship) is important --something that I think is often lost when it comes to portraying marriage in our society. "The Honeymoon's Over" is a refreshing and thought-provoking book about a subject that I now realize has not been explored nearly enough. I highly recommend it.

Reading The Honeymoon's Over, with its conspicuous cover image of burnt toast, is like gathering with your most articulate married friends for an extended bitch session - without the weight gain from the obligatory Milano cookies. Every reader will find their faves. I loved Terry McMillan's outrageous exhalation about her gay ex, the inspiration for Waiting to Exhale. It's brutal, bitter and a scream of honest outrage that doesn't pause for a polite dose of "love me despite my anger." Writer Andrea Chapin, who also edited the sharp collection with literary agent Sally Wofford-Girand, digs deep into the roots of her marriage to a musician who just can't grow up and get into the financial grove demanded by a growing family. Fortunately, Chapin still finds hope, despite repeated confrontations, by becoming the primary breadwinner. The final essay is a grace note by novelist Martha McPhee who struggles with marrying Mr. Right, a dreamer and a poet, while still haunted by the specter of her parents' distant divorce. Overall, the essay collection is a provocative and insightful look at the institution which my late father called "flawed" at best - but what's the alternative? Angst, infidelity, reconciliation, children (wanted and unwanted), sexual frustration and sudden joy - the stuff of soap operas and Chekhov -- all make their appearances in these 22 richly crafted essays.