Motivated by her wildly well-known New York Occasions essay THE MARRIAGE Toast I’ll Never Provide, Ada Calhoun provides a funny (however, not turn), clever (however, not smug) undertake the institution of marriage. Weaving intimate moments from her very own married life with frank insight from professionals, clergy, and friends, she upends expectations of total marital bliss to provide a realistic-but ultimately optimistic-portrait of what relationship is really like. You will see fights, there will be existential angst, there may even become affairs; occasionally you’ll look at the person you like and feel nothing but rage. Despite it all, Calhoun contends, staying married is easy: just do not get divorced.

Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give offers bracing straight talk to the newly married and honors those who have weathered the surprise. This exploration of contemporary marriage is at once sensible and entertaining, a function of unforeseen candor and literary elegance.