- ISBN13: 9781580052764
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- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Product Description
It’s time to get past the idea that divorce equals failure. Sure, it may not be what you had in mind when you walked down the aisle, but if it’s the escape hatch into a better life, it should be filled with more promise. It can be celebrated.
Ask Me About My Divorce is a spicy, fun, riveting collection of essays by women from all walks of life. With the unifying thread “I got divorced, and the world came into view,” the words within will make readers laug… More >>
This book is full of compelling and hopeful stories – but they are almost all stories from the perspective of being in marriages that were deadening and where the woman feels a sense of freedom, whether the one left or the one leaving. These are NOT good stories for someone who has NOT wanted the divorce, who has been betrayed and shocked in the betrayal (with the exception of R M Hora’s Sita’s eyes.) None of these stories involve women who spend a year crying for what is lost, for the actual beloved husband, for the injury of lies, or betrayals. Yes there are lies and betrayals, and courageous handling of them in good stories, but not the betrayal of soul and heart. Each woman tells the story of a divorce that seems ‘for the best’ very quickly. Those women don’t know what to say to the ‘how tragic’ or ‘I’m sorry’ of people, when that doesn’t match the experience. But they are not such good stories for those who are caught in grief. When you are in that place, this book triggers lots of anger and sadness at the other side of comments, the ones that tell you to ‘enjoy your freedom’ ‘you’ll find someone else’ ‘it’s time to stop crying’ ‘it’s time to start dating’ when you are still in shock and grieving. Those women will find themselves feeling once more berated for not being happy, for not moving on, for not getting over it fast enough. If you’ve really been dumped and betrayed, then this book will make you cry. A better book about the slow process of coming back to life after betrayal is Dominique Browning Around the House and In the Garden.
Rating: 3 / 5
When I first leafed through this book in our local independent bookstore, I loved the excerpts I skimmed. My eyes lingered on the story “Birth,” which I read more closely. Learning and teaching through analogy so solidifies a lesson. This excerpt shows the author’s profound ability to convey her own lessons, through which she has lived and discovered meaning, to encourage others. Based on this excerpt, just yesterday I sent this book to a friend who is going through a divorce, but I can’t wait to read the entire book myself!
Rating: 4 / 5
“This book is great. It has so many different women, so many different perspectives, so many different stories. There’s something for everyone in here; and at least one person with whom to identify. Some of the stories are poignant, some hilarious, some both; all help you to see divorce in a different way. There’s nothing dirty, no failure admission here.
This book is for anyone who has decided to divorce and has been harangued by friends and family; for anyone who has decided to divorce and been plagued by self-doubt; for anyone who has been left and didn’t know where to start picking up the pieces; for anyone who has stuck it out in a bad marriage and justified it by saying it’s best; for every woman–feminist and non-feminist.
Read this. All the way through. Don’t pick and choose stories; read them all. You’ll find yourself somewhere in these pages.
After asking my husband for a divorce a few months ago, I’ve been questioning if I’m insane. Off the rocker. My mother doesn’t understand it: “Stay for the kids,” she says, my husband’s family doesn’t understand it “They just got their marriage convalidated?!” and sometimes I don’t understand how after all this time, I got guts to do this–after four kids, and 11 years, and all my youth. But I look at my girls, I look at the mirror, I look at myself and realize that I’ve become the kind of wife that four daughters can not look up to. Someone with no self-respect, someone not respectable, someone whose complacence has infiltrated every part of my being and I know that this divorce is for my myself AND for my daughters (maybe you just don’t get it, Mom). This book comes at a time when I really need it. Thank God there are women out there who’ve felt this way before.
Rating: 5 / 5
It’s so encouraging to read these stories, written by women who didn’t let their heartbreak destroy them. Kudos to all of you writers! You’ve given the divorced and hurting a new tool that will help them get over the often worst time of their lives!
Rating: 5 / 5
Being in the throes of divorce, I found this book at the perfect time and stayed up until 2 a.m. reading it last night. It was such a relief to read the words I’ve felt. Not a single essay describes divorce in a self-pitying, insurmountable way and for that, I am grateful. Many people look at me as if I have cancer when I say I’m getting divorced, and then they take a step backwards, for fear of catching it. They assume I’m distraught or extremely angry, where in actuality, as so many of the essays in Ask Me About My Divorce describe, there are a wide range of other emotions divorced women can feel. And some of them even include joy, relief, and the thrill of dating again and having hot sex. Walsh’s essay and many more make me excited, not afraid, for what’s to come on my journey through divorce.
Rating: 5 / 5