HOW TO STAY MARRIED

Vivid scenes from a fractured marriage.

Every tumultuous marriage has its unique set of fault lines. One combination occurs when a spouse feels trapped because of her partner’s perceived inattention and insensitivity. That was the case with Key and his wife, whom he calls Lauren, “perhaps my greatest literary creation” and “the deliverer of wincing punch lines to my foolishness.” The line she delivered in 2017, however, after a decade and a half of marriage, was anything but funny: She was having an affair with a man Key refers to as Chad—“We’ve all been dumped for Chads”—a married neighbor in their adopted town of Savannah, Georgia. That devastating admission is the driving force of this witty, painful memoir. Key, who received the 2016 Thurber Prize for American Humor for The World’s Largest Man, describes in grimly hilarious detail the affair and its effect on their union and on their three daughters, who, in a touch typical of the author’s humor, he refers to as Coco, Pippi, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Most notably, Key describes the ways in which the affair tested the couple’s Christian faith. Admirably, the author not only lambastes himself for his own errors—when they started couples therapy, “Her noose loosened, and so did my blinders begin to fall”—but also gives Lauren an extended chapter in which she explains how insignificant she felt with a husband who had “his nose always stuck in a book or a laptop or staring out the window looking for the next idea.” This book documents Key’s attempt to summon love and understanding in the face of Lauren’s admission, seeking guidance from friends and the Bible. It makes for occasionally dark reading, but it’s never maudlin or vindictive. Through it all, Key demonstrates his gift for memorable humorous descriptions, as when he writes of himself on his wedding day, “I felt hideous and puffy, a Twinkie in the rain.”

An exceptional memoir of a humorist’s attempts to deal with his wife’s infidelity.