Married: A Fine Predicament

by Anne Roiphe

Book Overview

Since she first gave voice to the struggles of a generation of women with Up the Sandbox, Anne Roiphe has been a unique chronicler of how we live in relationships and in families. In Married, Roiphe... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465070671
• ISBN13: 9780465070671
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

lucid, witty

Anne Roiphe does not present herself as a sage who knows all the answers. In "Marriage: A Fine Predicament" she muses on her two marital unions. The first one, made at a young age to a self-absorbed playwright, produced a daughter and some hard-won self-insight and wisdom. The second, a longlasting union with a psychoanalyst who helped her raise their blended family of five daughters---two his, one hers, and two theirs--has given her optimism and faith in the institution of marriage. She worries for some of her daughters, as yet unmarried, and ponders whether arranged marriages---the norm in many places over many centuries---work out better than "romantic" ones. She roams over many topics, including the introduction of children into the marriage, the influence of in-laws, the differing gender-natures of male and female, the recurring patterns of relationships in families. I enjoyed the book for Roiphe's witty, elegant yet clear-as-water prose, although I didn't agree with all of her statements and/or conclusions. Since she wrote in far less than didactic style, I don't think she'll mind. Readers, especially those who are wives- and- mothers over a certain age, will find her excellent company as she probes our common concerns. Highly recommended!

Pre-Marital Must Read

I've become so accustomed to Pollyannaish [style] in the field of marriage/divorce that I opened this book more than a little cynical about what I would find -- just more "10 Simple Steps to Feeling Giddy About Your Mate" drivel. But the first few pages hooked me. Here is perhaps the most objective, show-no-mercy, honest book about marriage and divorce I've read. Having gone through my own marital struggles over the past eighteen years (and still married) I was at once sobered, enlightened, discouraged, and at times just a little hopeful about this sticky entanglement we call marriage. That she writes from a feminist point of view did not at all distract or demean this male reader. The genius in Roiphe's writing is she doesn't take the typical overworn and silly Mars/Venus approach to describing all marital ills. People are complex, their issues are complex, their childhoods are complex, their value systems are complex, their ever changing needs and wants and motives are complex and when two complex people come together in marriage all hell can and often does break loose -- IF people are awake and listening to what is going on in their souls and in their marriages.If I were a pre-marriage counselor this is the first and perhaps only book I would give to the naive young couple before me. Only then would the simplistic formula books on marital bliss make any sense...if, that is, they ever make it to the alter.