Matrimony is an October Booksense Pick and a book Dewey just loved! The author, Joshua Henkin, says, “I’d like to give away a free copy of MATRIMONY to one of your readers.” What a great guy! All you have to do to enter the contest and have a chance to win a copy of Matrimony (autographed, of course) is post in your blog, emailing the blurb to Henkin, saying anything you can think of about the book. Henkin’s email address is jhenkin at slc dot edu.Henkin says:
They could say something about [Dewey's] review, something about the book itself (this could be something substantive about the novel, or something less so – about the cover, the title, you name it), something about marriage in general, something about their marriage, whatever they would like. I will take the responses and choose the one that strikes me as best/most interesting/most compelling, and that person will receive the free copy.
The publisher's synopsis (bn.com) asks, "Can love endure the passing of time?" Yes, I still love the guy, but I divorced him because I could not live with him. A bn.com reader says, "Joshua Henkin Gives Marriage a Good Name." Could I learn how to be happily married if I read his book? Hey, Joshua, what do you think? Is it possible to learn?
I have not read this book, so cannot say anything about its content. But I do know about my own marriage. First, I got married too young, at 18. Second, he's six years older and, at 24, considered his new wife a child. Sounds awful, put this way, doesn't it? But he did say to me, "I figured you'd get over these childish ideas." Our marriage lasted 14 years. After our divorce, we remained friends ... which was good, since we had three children who needed both of us. A year-and-a-half later, he had remarried and I had learned the onus was on me to raise our kids. It wasn't easy, but today all three are married, with children ... and they are all the kind of adults any parent could be proud of. I figure I must have done something right. It was just the matrimony I didn't manage very well. Or he didn't. Or we didn't. Can I blame it on being too young to know what I was getting into?
I think I've told you my mom is exactly your age, and she got married at 18, too, and she and my dad get along like cats and dogs. In her place, I would have said, "I can't live with him" like you did, but they both seem somehow proud to have spent 50 years with someone they can't stand.
ReplyDelete