Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told by Harrison Scott Key

2 reviews

libbyloveslattes's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.0


How to Stay Married by Harrison Scott Key

“…a good person is a temporary and imaginary creature, as make-believe as unicorns and fire-breathing cows, because the best of us are often the worst, full of proud and viperous snakes, believing ourselves gods. The dragons did not just live in history and myth. They lived inside me.”

This book humorously and heartbreakingly shares about what it means to be married; and how to stay that way. I really enjoyed it for the most part; it was absolutely hilarious, and it rang true. Key shared both the glory and misery that can come from tying up your life in a covenant with a fellow sinner and image-bearer of God. For me, I could see the gospel woven throughout the story: the husband who fights for his unfaithful bride, who keeps loving and serving her even in her betrayal. The story showed the sinfulness and brokenness of humanity, how no one is truly good. It painted a picture of forgiveness and restoration, of unmerited grace. Yet, my biggest complaint about this book is that although the gospel themes were easy to see, they were implicit only. So many times I was convinced that Key was just about to bring in Christ, and he just didn’t. Sure, there are biblical references throughout, and Key himself claims to be Christian and discusses his religious journey alongside his marriage journey. Ultimately the savior of the story is love, left up to each readers interpretation of that. I also don’t agree with the theology written, and I think there was a grave misunderstanding about what church discipline is. 

However, this never claimed to be a theology book, and as a memoir about marriage, it certainly had the ring of truth. I felt Key’s pain, was convicted by his own flaws. I loved that somehow, even as we are reading about Lauren’s betrayal, she is  not an unsympathetic character in his story. We aren’t made to hate her, despite his sarcasm and joking about her and about the situation. Key has an entire alphabet of reasons he was a bad husband.  This book was a delight (the chapter about Gary their retriever puppy was hysterical) each chapter I would laugh and also, often feel convicted of my own apathy and selfishness in my marriage. Sin was never seen as positive, always as destructive, and in describing his sins I saw my own. 

Content considerations:
There is some language, and a heartbreaking miscarriage. There are frequent references to sex and adultery, but nothing I found to be overly graphic. I didn’t feel like there was anything in the book that didn’t belong, even the swearing felt well placed based on what was happening in the book. It’s hard not to empathize with his frustration and pain.
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mariefennema's review

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challenging emotional funny inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

4.75

Incredible story, great writing, very emotional and hard to read at times due to the nature of the content, but well worth it. I appreciate Key’s honesty and wrestling not only with his marriage but his faith and experience of life in a screwed up yet beautiful world. Highly recommend. 
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