Well, it was bound to happen - I wasn't too fond of this book. It's a lot easier for me to explain what I like about something than it is to say what I didn't. For me, this book just didn't click. The characters felt a little shallow, their trials fell a little flat and I didn't really resonate with what was going on in their lives.
The story is of Jill and Jack (haha, yes the book even pokes fun at the names), a "perfect couple" from most people's perspectives. Jill runs a national talk show on communication in marriage and has just written a book with many how-to's for the perfect marriage. She and Jack are about to go on a tour to promote the book when Jack announces that he wants a divorce. Jill leaves alone and begins her promo tour on her own while they delve into what went wrong individually.
Probably the major thing that bugged me in the book was the explanation for Jack's divorce request was that he was having a midlife crisis. Jack's midlife crisis was mentioned continually throughout the book as an explanation or excuse for his uncharacteristic behavior. I don't care if it is an actual phenomenon or not, sinful behavior is sinful behavior and just because a person's hit a certain age doesn't give them a reason to stop talking to their spouse. The real reasons for his desire for a divorce come to light and the characters begin to work through them but the constant mentioning of a midlife crisis got on my nerves.
Which brings me to another issue I had, there wasn't really any talk of sin but just of behavior that wasn't working for their marriage. They spent a lot of time talking about what wasn't working, that even though they were following all of Jill's "recipes for marriage" that they weren't really being truthful and that the way things were going wasn't working for them. Until the last few chapters really, they made mentions of wanting to change but it was based off of a desire to make their marriage work. The last few chapters had some nuggets of truth in them, but I felt like a lot of the book was more of a psychological look into marriage and not a Biblical study on the topic.
All in all, it was an easy book to read, some cute moments, and an intriguing plot line, but many things bugged me about it and if you want a story on broken marriages and what God has to do with that situation, I could think of several other books/movies to recommend.
No comments:
Post a Comment