Husbands Who Won't Lead and Wives Who Won't Follow: Help for Understanding Your Mate, Your Marriage & Your Expectations for Each Other

Rating:
Summary: Good Start to Understanding, But Lacks in Broadness
Review: On the plus side, the book does explain why women and men often find themselves frustrated in fruitless marriages. It mentions, for example, the lazy, couch-potato husband who finds responsibility inimical to his (lack of) thought processes, and the wife who finds herself, in response, either enmeshed in the irresponsibility, or avoiding him completely.

Therefore, descriptions are good, if not overly simplistic. The descriptions are interwoven, unfortunately, with references to the life of David, which the Bible is a little fuzzy on. I wish it had been interwoven with precise quotation of Scripture that deals specifically with marriage, instead of extrapolating on the quality of David's mariage, which we know little about.

The solutions part is a problem, since I also find them too simplistic. For example, the author states that a woman caught in a marriage to an escapist should not fall into the morass herself. However, the author never gives a broad explanation of the "how." How exactly does she not fall into it, yet maintain her attitude of submissiveness to her husband? These are the kinds of questions I could not find answers to.

In addition, solutions, as simplitic as they are, are not combined with a prayer program, meaning that God doesn't seem to enter the picture very clearly. I wish the author would have used prayer passages from the Bible so that a woman, or a man, could learn to pray to God appropriately for help in marriage.

All in all, then, the book is good at offering basic descriptions of dysfunctionality in marriage, but does not seem to offer good examples from Scriptures, nor a sound prayer program, to allow a man or woman to see what the Bible says about the problem, or to utilize God's partnership in the marriage through proper prayer.

Rating:
Summary: The best on the subject
Review: When reading James Walker's book I was struck by it's honesty and hard-hitting style. It's like he had been an uninvited guest in our home for many years. His book deals with Male passivity and how women go crazy when they feel like they are carrying the whole load. He also gives practical suggestions on how to save your marriage along with your sanity. When I read it I wanted to colapse and breathe a huge sigh of relief.