Poignant and witty essays on the beautiful complexity of marriage.

Inspired by her wildly popular The New York Times essay "The Wedding Toast I’ll Never Give", Ada Calhoun provides a funny (but not flip), clever (but not smug) take on the institution of marriage. Weaving intimate moments from her own married life with frank insight from experts, clergy and friends, she upends expectations of total marital bliss to present a realistic—but ultimately optimistic—portrait of what marriage is really like. There will be fights, there will be existential angst, there may even be affairs; sometimes you’ll look at the person you love and feel nothing but rage. Despite it all, Calhoun contends, staying married is easy: just don’t get divorced.

Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give offers bracing straight talk to the newly married and honours those who have weathered the storm. This exploration of modern marriage is at once wise and entertaining, a work of unexpected candour and literary grace.