Cleaving: The Story of a Marriage

by Dennis Covington and Vicki Covington

Book Overview

"Marriage is like a rain forest," Vicki Covington writes in Cleaving. "The story of a marriage contains all that grows in the canopy, all that is visible from an aerial, or public, view. The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0865475482
• ISBN13: 9780865475489
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: North Point Press
• Length: 213 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Totally fascinating reading.

Dennis and Vicki Covington are accomplished novelists, but in Cleaving they leave fiction behind to present a candid, revealing account of their marriage which has endured and survived alcoholism, mutual adultery, and antagonistic abortion. They spare neither themselves nor the reader from their lapses of faith, failures, betrayals, and addictions to alcohol and drugs. Cleaving is a mesmerizing biography, a lot like driving past a literary car wreck. Totally fascinating reading, and a testament to what the human spirit can cause, endure, and occasionally triumph over.

A pretty good book

I really enjoyed this book. Yes, it is very honest and sometimes painful to read, but to me, that's what good writing is about. In everyday life, a pretty gloss is always painted on things, and it seems that writers tend to look beneath the surface and reveal truths that need to be told about themselves and society. I'm a writer myself, I have a book in the Birmingham library system, and I know how hard it is to write. In fact, writing is the hardest thing that one will ever do. I think Vicki and Dennis Covington have done a pretty fair job with this one. If one ventures to read this, they should approach it with an open mind and heart as well. Vicki Covington still has a way with words and can weave them nicely in her own fashion. Although this is non- fiction, if you liked her four novels, you will enjoy this greatly.

Writers display incredible courage and honesty

I'm Vicki and Dennis Covington's daughter. I think that "Cleaving" is a truthful, beautifully written book. My parents had incredible courage to write this book and I'm very proud of them.

Gut level honesty

I live in Birmingham also, and I loved this book. It takes a lot of guts to air your secrets in this town. Most Southerners like to hide behind their pretentions. Kudos to the Covingtons for writing such an eloquent and genuine story. In some eyes, maybe the Covingtons will temporarily fall from grace, but they will probably go on to achieve something higher than a "public reputation". That something higher is simply the truth, plain and unadorned, and well worth the read!

An honest, beautifully written portrait of a marriage

Few readers are likely to come away from CLEAVING unmoved--some to anger (as initial public reaction in the authors' hometown of Birmingham, Ala., demonstrates), others to hope, sadness, spiritual reflection, an abiding sense of shared experience with two erstwhile strangers...or, all of the above.Dennis and Vicki Covington, both successful writers/teachers with 7 previous volumes between them--one a finalist for the National Book Award--were originally commissioned by a publisher to jointly write an inspirational book about the ups and downs of marriage and the importance of the spiritual dimension in that struggle. Its title was to be LIVING WATER, a metaphor based on their church mission work in South America, helping to drill wells for underprivileged communities.With the book deadline looming nearer and nearer, there was only one problem: their outwardly "model" suburban marriage was in serious disarray, and they found that they couldn't, in good conscience, create a work of spiritual platitudes with themselves as examples. Instead, they did what many people would have found unthinkable: they told the truth.The result is a powerfully honest, blunt, and yet graceful memoir...writing that is disturbing, fascinating, incandescent in its unadorned style, and ultimately redemptive.For decades, gifted authors such as John Cheever, John Updike, and Richard Yates have written unforgettable fiction about American marriages. CLEAVING is a worthy addition to that list. It's also true, in every sense of the word.