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A review by caseythereader
This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life by Lyz Lenz
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
sad
fast-paced
4.0
Thanks to Crown Publishing for the free copy of this book.
- THIS AMERICAN EX-WIFE is a manifesto. Lenz comes in hot and never lets up throughout the entire book, blending her personal story with statistics and the stories of other women to build a case that divorce is good, actually.
- I’m still trying to work out how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I’m glad it exists as a counterpoint to cultural narrative that (heterosexual) marriage should be the center of life and society. On the other hand, it often feels very I Just Discovered Feminism.
- On the other other hand, I am glad that Lenz is putting forth the idea that divorce doesn’t have to be only for huge, horrible reasons. It can just be a pile of small reasons that make you unhappy with your life (though some of the things her husband did made me see red).
- THIS AMERICAN EX-WIFE is a manifesto. Lenz comes in hot and never lets up throughout the entire book, blending her personal story with statistics and the stories of other women to build a case that divorce is good, actually.
- I’m still trying to work out how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I’m glad it exists as a counterpoint to cultural narrative that (heterosexual) marriage should be the center of life and society. On the other hand, it often feels very I Just Discovered Feminism.
- On the other other hand, I am glad that Lenz is putting forth the idea that divorce doesn’t have to be only for huge, horrible reasons. It can just be a pile of small reasons that make you unhappy with your life (though some of the things her husband did made me see red).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, and Alcohol
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual content