In this warm, deeply personal, and often humorous book, Nancy McCabe re-examines and gains new understanding of her early life and her ill-advised marriage.
Borrowing from Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights and Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” how-to essays and before-and-after weight loss ads, a curriculum guide, Bible study notes, an obsession with Tom Swiftie jokes, and women’s magazine columns and quizzes, McCabe examines the many influences that led to her youthful marriage—and out of it, into finally taking control of her life.
Exerpts from Can This Marriage Be Saved?
Reviews
This is a failed-marriage memoir with an interesting twist: the narrator admits to entering the marriage in bad faith yet remains committed to the union. It’s also a redemption story of a young woman growing toward independence. That it eschews. . . a victim narrative and owns up to the narrator’s failings is refreshing.”
–Michele Morano, author of Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain and Like Love
Why should a reader care about some writer’s long-ago, short-lived marriage? Because when the writer is Nancy McCabe, the examination of that long ago marriage helps us understand our own struggles for love and independence. . . .This is an immensely lively performance from which we emerge not merely entertained but enlightened and grateful. McCabe’s done the difficult work of probing her heart, which brings us closer to apprehending our own. . . .An engaging, spirited, and thoughtful work.”
–Beth Ann Fennelly, author of Heating and Cooling: 54 Micro-Memoirs
They say it is impossible to understand another person’s marriage, and perhaps equally impossible to comprehend your own, but Nancy McCabe’s Can This Marriage be Saved is a wise, funny, and inventive attempt to put those notions to rest. McCabe recounts her early years vividly, with delightful honesty and remarkable insight. Every page is a pleasant surprise.”
–Dinty W. Moore, author of Between Panic and Desire and The Truth of the Matter
Nancy McCabe’s memoir Can this Marriage be Saved? is luminous in its need to know even the hardest truths. This story of a young woman ascending is by turns heartbreaking and triumphant. This is a book for anyone who has traveled, or is traveling, the long road to self-acceptance. I’ve read and admired Nancy McCabe’s work for years, but she’s truly at the top of her game in this brave new memoir.”
–Lee Martin, author of The Bright Forever
“McCabe has a gift, though, of laying out her upbringing, the cultural standards of her day, and the psychology that she operated under. Through her eyes, I was able to gain insight into an existence effected by unequal gender dynamics that my privileges preclude me from experiencing.
While I’d recommend this book to anyone, I think it would be especially relevant to college freshmen since they are about the same age as the author in most of her book. The ways in which identity is informed and re-invented, and how our unconscious power and interpersonal dynamics affect other people, would be particularly timely insights.”
—WPSU Bookmark (Read the complete review here.)
“An inherently fascinating, insightful, thoughtful and thought-provoking life story, ‘Can This Marriage Be Saved?: A Memoir’ is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to community and college/university library Contemporary American Biography collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that ‘Can This Marriage Be Saved?: A Memoir’ is also readily available for personal reading lists in a digital book format.”
—The Midwest Book Review
“This is a failed-marriage memoir with an interesting twist: the narrator admits to entering the marriage in bad faith yet remains committed to the union. It’s also a redemption story of a young woman growing toward independence. That it eschews. . . a victim narrative and owns up to the narrator’s failings is refreshing.”
—Michele Morano, author of Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain and Like Love
Mentions
Chelsea Biondolillo discusses “Can This Troubled Marriage Be Saved?” in her essay “What Can Sonnets Teach Us about Essays? The Benefit of Strict Form” in the September 12, 2013 issue of Brevity.