Love's Labors

A portrait of American marriage and divorce is presented through the author's chronicles, in which he describes his first marriage, divorce, second marriage, and coming to terms with both wives. 17,500 first printing.

A curiously unfeeling account of a marriage of the 1980s that ended in childless divorce after eight years. Launching a relationship that was to be ``different,'' Roche (Creative Writing/Univ. of Central Arkansas) and Julie Elman, who met in karate class, made their first date an 80-mile bicycle trip. They opted for the Peace Corps instead of a honeymoon, and when the Peace Corps assignment fizzled, they settled arbitrarily in Denver, with no jobs and no prospects. Back home in Ohio, Roche found a job while Julie enrolled in graduate school on the other side of the state, establishing the pattern of separations that would last the rest of the marriage. In a reversal of traditional roles, she was restless, he ``patient and generous,'' practicing the ``art of sacrifice'' and setting goals for the relationship (long-term, stable, fostering both independence and self- sacrifice). Julie did her adventurous thing, which included jobs in distant settings, plus a six-month solo trek along the Appalachian Trail. Roche's own two stints in graduate school, plus a summer in Europealso sololeft the couple with what amounted to a weekend marriage. He had an affair, which he told her about after the fact; she had an affair but asked his permission first. After one last summer of living together and trying to turn their ``fantasies about each other'' into reality, they divorced. Roche found another partner quickly, but questionsand angerabout his first marriage continued to surface. He put them to rest with this book, which opens and closes at lunch trois with his first and second wives. From a player who seems more a distant observer, a memoir that offers the reader neither personal passion nor useful insight on so-called ``starter marriages.'' -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Roche provides an insightful description of his first marriage and thereby renders an account of what goes into the courtship, marriage, and divorce of many modern American couples. Roche and his first wife were married at an early age and set off almost immediately for Peace Corps work in the West Indies. Failing to complete their commitment to the Peace Corps, the young couple then went through a range of indecisions about careers, living locations, and lifestyles as they struggled with personal development that might better have been managed individually. From a husband's perspective, Roche portrays the give-and-take of marriage, the learning and growing process of the individuals, and the questionioning of what it takes to make a successful marriage. Vanessa Bush