by John Gottman ; Nan Silver ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 4, 2012
For such an overcrowded topic, this entry manages to be both instructional and enlightening.
Gottman and Silver (co-authors: The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, 1999, etc.) return with a discussion of trust, intimacy and the secrets to love’s longevity.
The book is the product of 40 years of research culled from Gottman’s “Love Lab,” an observational program based at the University of Washington. There, he subjects “long-term romance to scientific scrutiny” via the analysis of a couple’s physical and psychological behavior and their social interactions and routines. The authors describe what Gottman calls the “Four Horsemen” of a couple’s back-and-forth negative interactions: criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling. The roles of betrayal and infidelity are also important, and couples must avoid falling prey to the marriage-dooming “lack of deep understanding and connection with each other.” Through the in-depth analysis of specific couples (many presented as case studies), Gottman’s theories ring true, though redundancies and unrealistic expectations (“a partner’s life should be an open book, without secrets”) surface intermittently. His core belief—that “the death of love is a tragedy”—begets proactive, positive solutions ranging from the calculated mapping of a marriage’s development to tips for sex-positive communication. Love Lab home tests include a “Trust Metric,” a true-love indicator and an all-important “When to Bail” test for sputtering relationships. In the appendixes, the authors further identify and open conversational avenues for partners stymied by intimate communication, past emotional baggage and imbalances in sexual desire.
For such an overcrowded topic, this entry manages to be both instructional and enlightening.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4516-0847-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
Share your opinion of this book
More by John Gottman
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by John Gottman with Nan Silver
by Helen Fremont ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 11, 2020
A vivid sequel that strains credulity.
Fremont (After Long Silence, 1999) continues—and alters—her story of how memories of the Holocaust affected her family.
At the age of 44, the author learned that her father had disowned her, declaring her “predeceased”—or dead in his eyes—in his will. It was his final insult: Her parents had stopped speaking to her after she’d published After Long Silence, which exposed them as Jewish Holocaust survivors who had posed as Catholics in Europe and America in order to hide multilayered secrets. Here, Fremont delves further into her tortured family dynamics and shows how the rift developed. One thread centers on her life after her harrowing childhood: her education at Wellesley and Boston University, the loss of her virginity to a college boyfriend before accepting her lesbianism, her stint with the Peace Corps in Lesotho, and her decades of work as a lawyer in Boston. Another strand involves her fraught relationship with her sister, Lara, and how their difficulties relate to their father, a doctor embittered after years in the Siberian gulag; and their mother, deeply enmeshed with her own sister, Zosia, who had married an Italian count and stayed in Rome to raise a child. Fremont tells these stories with novelistic flair, ending with a surprising theory about why her parents hid their Judaism. Yet she often appears insensitive to the serious problems she says Lara once faced, including suicidal depression. “The whole point of suicide, I thought, was to succeed at it,” she writes. “My sister’s completion rate was pathetic.” Key facts also differ from those in her earlier work. After Long Silence says, for example, that the author grew up “in a small city in the Midwest” while she writes here that she grew up in “upstate New York,” changes Fremont says she made for “consistency” in the new book but that muddy its narrative waters. The discrepancies may not bother readers seeking psychological insights rather than factual accuracy, but others will wonder if this book should have been labeled a fictionalized autobiography rather than a memoir.
A vivid sequel that strains credulity.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982113-60-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
Share your opinion of this book
More by Helen Fremont
BOOK REVIEW
by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2011
A straightforward tale of kindness and paying it forward in 1980s New York.
When advertising executive Schroff answered a child’s request for spare change by inviting him for lunch, she did not expect the encounter to grow into a friendship that would endure into his adulthood. The author recounts how she and Maurice, a promising boy from a drug-addicted family, learned to trust each other. Schroff acknowledges risks—including the possibility of her actions being misconstrued and the tension of crossing socio-economic divides—but does not dwell on the complexities of homelessness or the philosophical problems of altruism. She does not question whether public recognition is beneficial, or whether it is sufficient for the recipient to realize the extent of what has been done. With the assistance of People human-interest writer Tresniowski (Tiger Virtues, 2005, etc.), Schroff adheres to a personal narrative that traces her troubled relationship with her father, her meetings with Maurice and his background, all while avoiding direct parallels, noting that their childhoods differed in severity even if they shared similar emotional voids. With feel-good dramatizations, the story seldom transcends the message that reaching out makes a difference. It is framed in simple terms, from attributing the first meeting to “two people with complicated pasts and fragile dreams” that were “somehow meant to be friends” to the conclusion that love is a driving force. Admirably, Schroff notes that she did not seek a role as a “substitute parent,” and she does not judge Maurice’s mother for her lifestyle. That both main figures experience a few setbacks yet eventually survive is never in question; the story fittingly concludes with an epilogue by Maurice. For readers seeking an uplifting reminder that small gestures matter.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-4251-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Howard Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
Share your opinion of this book
More by Laura Schroff
BOOK REVIEW
by Laura Schroff & Alex Tresniowski ; illustrated by Barry Root
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.