I have been reading Emily Gould's chronicles of her life for, well, as long as she has been chronicling it. Her latest essay for the magazine recounts the period where she contemplated divorcing her husband, the writer Keith Gessen, and also examines the literary divorce-memoir genre. (Just this month, Leslie Jamison and Lyz Lenz joined Rachel Cusk and Nora Ephron with entries in the canon.) It's a knockout piece of writing that doesn't flinch from the hard stuff — Emily at the height of her form. Here are just a few ideas that will stick with me: that blowing up your life is extremely tempting but should be deployed sparingly. That no matter how clever we may be, heterosexual marriage is a mindfuck. That if your partner is doing all the wrong things, that doesn't mean you're right. That forgiveness is the hardest work we do. That, despite my personal skepticism, couples therapy can occasionally work. And finally, that your phone probably should be taken away from you while you're in the psych ward. I wish I could read Emily's essay for the first time again.\xa0 |
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—Marisa Carroll, executive editor, the Cut\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 |
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