Here Lies My Heart: Essays on Why We Marry, Why We Don’t, and What We Find There by Deborah Chasma
This started out being the perfect book for peeking into candid, graphic depictions of other people’s marital lives. It’s like listening to your friends dish on what’s really happening at home, except pithy, and with more adjectives and metaphors.
The essay authors have a varied range, from the never-married to the may-someday-be-married, from the faithful to the cheaters, both genders and all orientations. Since they’re all written by writers, the subjects seem a little more neurotic than average, but also more educated and eloquent. Some of them went on a bit longer than I wanted, in that pedantic way that lapses into dreary, but I only skipped one of the essays, which is below average for me and anthologies.
If you want to know how other people stay married (or don’t) and what challenges they overcome (or don’t) but aren’t willing to read 20+ women’s fiction novels, this is a good shortcut.
