Falling : The Story of One Marriage

Rating:
Summary: is this book for marriage or serial monogomy?
Review: After finding that my boyfriend's mother had given him this book to read after he had a talk with her about marriage! I would just like to know how other readers would feel about this? I took it quite badly!

Rating:
Summary: Honest and Brutal look at one Marriage
Review: After having read the book, then read some of the reviews, I was suprised at how outraged some people were at this story. This is probably the most realistic viewpoint about a relationship that I have read in a long time. Does that mean that every man cheats on his wife? No. Does that mean that every woman wants "maintennance" for the rest of her life? No. What it does mean is that sometimes people make mistakes (in this case, several of them), but they must go on. Granted, there were several times where I found myself angry at the author for his actions, but who am I to judge someone elses misfortunes, when we all have skeletons in our closet.

Rating:
Summary: is this book for marriage or serial monogomy?
Review: Taylor exhibits a fascinting account of his 13 year marriage. Fabulously written!

Rating:
Summary: Taylor's book is much more his story than that of a marriage
Review: Taylor's book is much more his story than that of a marriage. We are privy to a great deal of his own critical self evaluation, yet we learn very little about his marriage. Taylor deserves credit for his indepth and insightful commentary on his own thinking over the course of a marriage. He is a man trying to make sense of vast confrontations between parts of himself. But the novel falls short of offering any inexorable truths about marriage, other than not to repeat the sins of the author. At times we question the very character of the author, a self serving egoist who has very little to say about the people in his life other than to tell us about their sophisticated jobs, travel schedules, and their favorite drinks. Did the author ever get past the superficial with anyone, let alone his wife? He doesn't seem to have a real relationship with anyone. Should we be surprised when it doesn't develop with his wife? If a reader wants to learn about much of what is wrong with modern marriage, Falling is an excellent and penetrating example, even if the writer doesn't see it himself. However, if readers are looking to gain insight on what the story of a good marriage might look like, they should look elsewhere. May I recommend Sheldon Vaunauken's masterful love story, A Severe Mercy, to those of you who would like to walk away from a story of marriage feeling more than saddened by the writer's failed understanding of the institution he was so interested in writing about.

Rating:
Summary: Goes beyond most self-serving memoirs
Review: This book was extremely well written, sad, compelling, and frustrating. Mr. Taylor comes across as very introspective and thoughtful, except in the one critical area of his several extramarital affairs, which, if I was figuring the chronology correctly, began awfully early in his marriage. And if the idea of family was so important to him, as he stresses over and over, why didn't he try to strengthen his marriage and his family by NOT HAVING THE AFFAIRS? It's one thing to give your marriage every possible chance to succeed, and quite another to sabotage it from several angles. Mr. Taylor's character seems to combine admirable qualities of honor and duty with an unawareness of his sizable narcissism--which displays itself in his relationships with his lovers and their husbands as well. What kind of person would agree to be introduced to his lover's unknowing husband? This is an act either of cruelty, or completely oblivious narcissism.

The author's wife, though thinly sketched, seemed true to life, as my opinion of her wavered between sympathetic and unsympathetic. She felt limited and frustrated by her at-home-mother role, yet resisted finding full time work, and ultimately demanded lifetime financial maintenance from the author. I found myself wondering if the author had published this book in order to keep up his alimony payments.

In the interests of fairness, I don't mean to condemn the author simply for failing at marriage. I can't fault someone for entering into a union with more hope than realism; and after all, no one can see into the future. I guess all you can do is know yourself, and know the other person as best you can, and try your hardest. But it certainly seems that our tolerance for struggle, difficulty, and discontent has never been lower.

Rating:
Summary: Is it autobiography? Or not?
Review: While the author's writing style is compelling, this story's narrator is not totally credible. The reader may find themselves wondering, as I did, whether this book is truly autobiographical, or a fictionalized and air-brushed version of "One Marriage." Either way, what about the WIFE's side of the story? Numerous infidelities prove that the husband in this relationship certainly lacked committment. It sounds to me as if he didn't think seriously about his marriage until his lack of conviction contributed to its end.