There are marriage books, and there are divorce books. It's rare that someone manages to combine the two, but that's what Dana Adam Shapiro has done in You Can Be Right (or You Can Be Married). After hearing of one friend's divorce after another, Shapiro decided to figure out what makes a successful marriage by dissecting the failures of others, crisscrossing the country to interview hundreds of divorcees. As he points out, more than 50% of American marriages end in divorce--and yet, despite these overwhelming odds, the "vast majority" of Americans will choose to tie the knot before the age of 35.
The stories Shapiro collected during his interviews leave no stone unturned, from crossdressing to military wives to serial infidelity. Though the personal nature of the stories can make the book feel a bit uneven at times, the end result is still a powerful one. As common ideas start to emerge from one story to the next, it becomes clear that Shapiro was onto something with his approach to understanding love through its failures. With candid, sometimes brutally honest revelations about love, sex, fidelity and friendship, there is wisdom contained in You Can Be Right... that won't be found in more traditional books about marriage. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm