For those who find linking recovery from illness and good sex a bit of a stretch, Pearsall's provocative take on sexuality is reason enough to value his book. He outlines the emotional cripplers of marriage, including low self-esteem and the inability to handle anger. More marriages break up because two people don't know how to handle their anger toward one another than any other reason,'' he writes. Some of the newest research shows marriages in which both partners refuse to fight can still be stable and happy. Almost all the literature shows that couples who make it over the long haul believe in a spiritual dimension.
Much research backs up that assertion.
Don't count on this book to be the only guide you'll need as you contemplate wedlock. But at least this slim, modest volume is a start on negotiating compromises about using everything from the TV remote control to credit cards. Pesmen, of with Self magazine, wrote the book in his ninth month of marriage. Neither marriage nor life works that way. Long-term romance is a crock.