You Can Be Right (or You Can Be Married): Looking for Love in the Age of Divorce

(Paperback)

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Fast approaching the age when bachelors go from seeming curious to seeming weird, filmmaker Dana Adam Shapiro set out across the country with a tape recorder in search of answers to age-old questions: Why does love dieand what can we do to prevent it from happening

It all began as a self-help journey in the purest sense. A serial monogamist for more than two decades, Shapiro wanted to know why the honeymoon phase of his relationships never lasted until the actual honeymoon. Believing that more can be learned from failure than from success, he spent years interviewing hundreds of divorced people, living vicariously through the romantic tragedies of others, hoping to learn how to avoid them in his own love life.

The result is a timely treasure trove of marital wisdom. Shockingly intimate, universally relevant, and profoundly personal, this is a page-turning, voyeuristic peek into the private lives of our friends and neighborsas well as a hopeful investigation of modern lovethat is as racy as it is revelatory.

Reviews

A wonderful and important piece of thinking and reporting.

--Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Committed: A Love Story and Eat, Pray, Love
"As a couples therapist, I witness daily the unraveling of adult intimacies. Dana Adam Shapiro's gripping testimonies of demise and divorce are written with vividness and aplombI felt as if he were eavesdropping in my office. A grand reportage of marriage and its discontents."
--Esther Perel, author of Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence
"A book about divorce written by a man who's never been married should be ridiculous. And yet I gobbled up this odd and touching and delicious book. I read it in a single sitting. And what's more, I learned something new about love and marriage and passion and commitment."

--Ayelet Waldman, author of Red Hook Road and Love and Other Impossible Pursuits
"After reading Dana Adam Shapiro's fascinating and revealing book, I will never again take my marriage for granted. I would write more, but I have to go buy some scented candles and tidy up the kitchen."

--A.J. Jacobs, author of Drop Dead Healthy: One Mans Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection

Author Bio

Dana Adam Shapiro directed the Academy Award-nominated documentary Murderball and the Independent Spirit Award nominee Monogamy, starring Chris Messina and Rashida Jones. He is the author ofThe Every Boy, a former senior editor at Spin, and a contributor to The New York Times Magazine.He lives in Venice, California.