cover image Women on Divorce: A Bedside Companion

Women on Divorce: A Bedside Companion

. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), $22 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-15-100114-9

In this disarmingly candid, invaluable collection of original essays, 14 women writers, most of them divorced, discuss their marital breakups and ponder why marriages fail or hang together. Ellen Gilchrist argues that marriages often fail when people choose mates impelled by a subconscious wish to recreate their childhoods--they select spouses who resemble their mothers or fathers. That thesis is supported by the personal account of Anne Roiphe, who declares her approval of arranged marriage (a sentiment echoed by Gilchrist)--a jarring note in an anthology marked by feminist sensibilities. Co-editor Spano, New York Times travel columnist, was swept up in romantic fantasies when she married an actor, who informed her several years later that he had been having affairs. Co-editor Kaganoff, a senior editor at Simon & Schuster and formerly editor of paperback forecasts at PW, tells how her split with her lawyer husband drove a temporary wedge between her and her parents, as well as between her and the Orthodox Jewish community that had been at the center of her life. Jane Shapiro splices irreverent memories of her two divorces and an interview with famous, hard-headed divorce lawyer Raoul Felder. Also included are pieces by Francine Prose, Alix Kates Shulman, Carol Shields, Ann Patchett, Mary Morris and Perri Klass. Filled with healing insights, bracing humor and inner strength, this notable compilation will be immensely helpful to any woman--or man--who has ever divorced, or is going through a divorce or wants to stay married. First serial to Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Mirabella, Redbook and Ladies' Home Journal. (Oct.)