A married couple talk out their differences, travails, and humorous foibles in this rollicking self-help book.

David Bulitt, a divorce and family lawyer, and his wife, Julie Bulitt, a social worker and family therapist, have a series of bantering conversations in this text that draw on anonymized case studies of their clients and episodes from their own marriage of more than 30 years to back up their pointers on improving one’s relationships and family life. They explore five themes: building a solid partnership; dealing with monetary issues, such as their own periods of overspending, financial crisis, and austerity; work-life balance; parenting, including their own experience raising a troubled daughter; and sex, a topic that provokes some acerbic exchanges over the course of the book. Via these dialogues, they convey straightforward, sensible wisdom, stressing the importance of communication, facing problems head-on, and being attentive to the needs of one’s partner. The Bulitts couch their advice in homely metaphors—“Your relationship garage gets cleaned and swept by spending time with your partner, doing nice things for him, talking to her, and at least now and then, having sex with each other”—and raw confessional moments: “I was tired and wanted to sleep,” Julie recalls of times when she rebuffed David’s advances. “But Mr. Selfish Boner-Head made me feel guilty, like I was shortchanging him somehow.” For the most part, though, their conversations often play out in snappy repartee worthy of a screwball comedy, as when he says, “Tell me I look good, that you think I’m sexy; you’re attracted to me. It’s not all that complicated,” and she kids, “You want me to lie.” Other passages earnestly reveal the authors’ self-lacerating anguish over their daughter’s destructive behavior: “when a parent says that they will ‘always be there for you no matter what,’ it might be a lie.” Overall, the Bulitts’ vivid, captivating prose and willingness to open up about their shortcomings and setbacks make their advice engaging and credible.

An insightful, often funny, and painfully honest guide to navigating rough patches in relationships.