A clever, well-argued and thoroughly joyless examination of what Lenz calls the 'commonplace horror' of marriage.

A light mix of history and social commentary that leans heavily on personal storytelling without quite turning into memoir. Common though it is, this hybrid form is tough to pull off. It can tempt writers to map their own experiences too neatly onto collective ones while also undermining the specificity and perspective that a good memoir needs. This American Ex-Wife suffers from both of these problems. Lenz’s impulse to generalize is so strong that at times her work whiffs of self-help.

While it might be tempting to shrug off Lenz’s argument because of her unlucky (and that’s a nice word for it) coupling, the data here is persuasive.

A raw, angry, rabble-rousing book.

Scorching.