Cleaving
Subtitle: the story of a marriage
By: Dennis and Vicki Covington.
Contributors: Covington, Vicki.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: North Point Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 213
Subjects: Covington, Dennis -- Marriage; Covington, Vicki -- Marriage; Journalists -- United States -- Biography; Married people -- United States -- Biography; Novelists, American -- 20th century -- Biography
Other titles: Story of a marriage.
Description: Told in the authors' alternating voices, Cleaving is both the story and the understory of a marriage, unique in its particulars but universal in its resonance. Childhood acquaintances, Vicki and Dennis meet again in their twenties and wed. Like many of their generation, they "promise each other nothing" and get more than they'd bargained for: alcoholism, infidelity, infertility, uncertainty. Gradually, tumult gives way to sobriety, parenthood, and meaningful work, but a sense of yearning remains.

In a quest to root themselves in the larger world, they embark on a mission to hand-drill water wells in Central America, attempting to slake a spiritual thirst by addressing a practical need.