IN PRAISE OF MARRIAGE

A standard summary of many of the issues surrounding marriage, with a somewhat skewed emphasis on sex and infidelity. The same points crop up again and again: marriage and family life are changing, but essentially strong; few people are virgins on their wedding night; crises such as having a baby or midlife insecurities change the nature of the relationship, particularly in its sexual aspects. Atkin, a family therapist who interviewed 127 middle-income white urban Americans to supplement her personal experience, also co-authored a book on divorced fathers (Part-Time Father, 1976). But there isn't much here that isn't divulged elsewhere: three of Erikson's life stages are recapped as the four ""seasons"" of marriage; feminism and the movement of women into the workplace are credited with producing the now-legendary upheaval in gender roles; infidelity is seen as sometimes arising from ulterior motives, such as the unconscious need to retaliate, yet we are told it is not always a negative influence on the marriage. Straightforward but unspectacular.