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Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage
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About This Book
An illuminating, poignant, and savagely funny examination of modern marriage from Ask Polly advice columnist Heather Havrilesky If falling in love is the peak of human experience, then marriage is the slow descent down that mountain, on a trail built from conflict, compromise, and nagging doubts. Considering the limited economic advantages to marriage, the deluge of other mate options a swipe away, and the fact that almost half of all marriages in the United States end in divorce anyway, why do so many of us still chain ourselves to one human being for life? In Foreverland, Heather Havrilesky illustrates the delights, aggravations, and sublime calamities of her marriage over the span of fifteen years, charting an unpredictable course from meeting her one true love to slowly learning just how much energy is required to keep that love aflame. This refreshingly honest portrait of a marriage reveals that our relationships are not simply "happy" or "unhappy," but something much murkier--at once unsavory, taxing, and deeply satisfying. With tales of fumbled proposals, harrowing suburban migrations, external temptations, and the bewildering insults of growing older, Foreverland is a work of rare candor and insight. Havrilesky traces a path from daydreaming about forever for the first time to understanding what a tedious, glorious drag forever can be.
Reviews
"Accepting it as it truly is allows her to find the real romance ..."
"Havrilesky has always done her thinking on the page, and a number of times you will see her at the end of a chapter amending a view shared at the beginning."
"Her extended rant about suburbanites seems a smidge harsh, not to mention dated, for my taste ...Nonetheless, Havrilesky's metaphors are reason alone to pick up the book."
"This attraction to the categorical, this yearning for the definitive broad statement, is unfortunate in a writer whose signal gift is for mordant, close-up descriptive prose ..."
"An engaging, candid, relatable memoir of love and marriage."
"Have I got a book for you!"
"Havrilesky's candid reflections will delight those who've taken the plunge, for better or for worse."
"Most of all, it is a state not to be taken for granted."
"Unlike the many memoirs that double as thinly veiled advertisements for their authors, Foreverland ventures occasionally unflattering honesty, not just about Bill but also about its author."
"For the record, she dedicates Foreverland to Bill."
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