Men and Women

The Lure of Divorce

By on • ( Leave a comment )
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.

—Marisa Carroll, executive editor, the Cut    

The Lure of Divorce Seven years into my marriage, I hit a breaking point — and had to decide whether life would be better without my husband in it.

Photo: Hugo Yu
Read the full story
Enjoying  One Great Story?
Subscribe now for unlimited access to everything New York.

More From Today
Is Jacob Elordi too tall to be a movie star? Hollywood is one of the few places where height doesn’t automatically confer benefits, but the six-foot-five heartthrob appears to be breaking the barrier, reports Lane Brown. 
READ MORE »
There’s an anti-feminist backlash at the heart of the upcoming election, Sarah Jones argues, and Trump is an unrepentant misogynist leading a movement bent on controlling women’s bodies and futures.
READ MORE »
“Looking back, it’s this impossible situation of wishing I could have challenged my institutions more.” The Cut’s Cat Zhang profiles actress Greta Lee, who got her first starring role 20 years into her career. 
READ MORE »
From Long Island City to the Bronx, Grub Street’s Chris Crowley chronicles his hunt to find crunchy, chewy, tender, long-simmered carnitas in New York.
READ MORE »
The filmmakers behind Bob Marley: One Love keep trying to contextualize the legend, to present little glimpses of the past, and are instead left with a hollow biopic, writes Bilge Ebiri in his review. 
READ MORE »
Our greatest writers’ greatest hits, from the New York archives, and for subscribers only. Sign up here.
Get The Newsletter

Categories: Men and Women

Leave a Reply