I liked this book.
I liked it so much more than Eat, Pray, Love partly because there was more I could relate to, and partly because it was the exploration of a concept - marriage - from a variety of perspectives. And possibly because in between reading the two books I had watched that video, and warmed to the author.
There was lots to make me smile in this book. I loved her recounting of the description of a Hmong second wedding as the same as a first wedding, but with slightly fewer pigs. (The Hmong are a Vietnamese hill tribe.) The cultural aspects of her exploration really interested me, and when she described contemporary Western thought as a battle between 'Greeks' and 'Hebrews' I found myself hoping that might be the subject of her next book. Alas it only got a couple of pages this time.
Probably my favourite passage in the book is where she talks about not wanting children. It amused me.
'As I got older, I discovered that nothing within me cried out for a baby. My womb did not seem to have come equipped with that famously ticking clock. Unlike so many of my friends, I did not ache with longing whenever I saw an infant. (Though I did ache with longing, it is true, whever I saw a good used-book shop.)'
Anyone else identify with this? I like children, especially between the amusing ages of two and, say, eightish. I just have no particular compulsion to produce any. And that is all I am going to say on that subject today, because it usually results in misunderstandings and virtual lynchings and I am too busy to be lynched. I need to go to the post office, for starters.
Meanwhile, I recommend Committed