So Much for “Happily Ever After”

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Preface ix
4. Introduction 1
5. PART ONE: HE/SHE LEFT HER/HIM
6. “If Not” and “I Give My Husband Fish Sausage” 27
7. What Was Home 31
8. “Chapter Four You Break Up”: A Journal 41
9. Growing Up Middle Aged 61
10. Reflections on April Fool’s Day 76
11. Talaq, Divorce 90
12. No More Romance for Me 97
13. From Buddy to Joe to Harriet 106
14. So Much for “Happily Ever After” 111
15. Dear Harry: Unsent E-mails to an Ex 120
16. My Own Dance 138
17. Event Horizon 146
18. The Only Life I Have 158
19. Observing the Cormorant 162
20. PART TWO: PERSPECTIVES ON BEING LEFT AND LEAVING
21. Trashed 167
22. Marriage Comes and Goes but Sex Is Forever 169
23. Lost Love: The Nature of Romantic Rejection 182
24. Leaking Affections: A Socio-psychoanalytic View 196
25. What’s Really Going on Here?: The Therapist’s Perspective 211
26. Divorce Is Economic Suicide 229
27. Single Women at Midlife: The Always, Already Dumped 242
28. Snow White and Rose Red Meet Their “Prince” 256
29. Left Alone: Deserted by Death or Divorce 261
30. Splitsville: Break-up Literature 265
31. Break-up Art 298
32. Unholy Matrimony 300
33. The Chore 302
34. About the Contributors 305