Interesting portrayal of a troubled marriage

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	• The Marriage Diaries: A Novel Rebecca Campbell Ballantine Books, 2006 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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An excellent study of marriage

Rebecca Campbell's two previous novels, Slave To Fashion and Slave To Love, have won the hearts of the "chick lit" genre. This time, however, she has slightly drifted away from the light and easy genre and wrote a book that has a little more depth and which exploits the difficult subject of infidelity in marriage.

The main characters, Celeste and Sean, are faced with everyday problems and many challenges of married life. The honeymoon stage of their relationship has been long forgotten and they both experience unhealthy routines and stress of everyday life. Both Celeste and Sean crave something more from their marriage but they do not really know how to approach their problems.

One day Celeste stumbles across Sean's secret journal in which he first describes his everyday and somehow boring life as a stay-at-home dad, but then goes on describing his fascination with another woman. Celeste soon is plotting a little revenge, which takes a less-than-expected course and brings on even more complications in their already difficult situation. Will their marriage survive?

The Marriage Diaries is an excellent study of a marriage. It shows a lot of emotions and explains reasons behind some of the actions that the main characters decided to take. The book shows that the relationship problems and issues are not always black and white. There is usually more behind what's on the surface. I really enjoyed the book, and I was very pleasantly surprised that the book was so much unlike the two previous ones. I'm very curious what is Campbell's next surprise.

Armchair Interviews says: A well-done change of pace for this author.

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British Humor

Extraordinarily witty characters grapple with the ordinary challenges of marriage and monogamy. Sub-plots include diffculties with parenting and working. The conclusion was a bit too fast and tidy.

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The Marriage Diaries

Celeste and Sean are a married couple who are complete opposites. She loves fashion and works in the industry, is neat, and trendy, and he abhors being in fashion, is sloppy, eccentric, and is a stay-at-home dad. But somehow they have put aside their differences and seem to have the perfect marriage, or do they? Celeste seems to have opened a can of worms when she accidentally discovers Sean's private journal and reads his unfavorable ramblings on herself and finds that her husband is attracted to another woman. She keeps secretly reading his journal and starts her own counterjournal in rebuttal of Sean's ramblings about the birth of their son, Harry, and the first weeks of parenthood. Will fidelity win against desire and will this young marriage survive its first big test?

**** As a female reader, I thoroughly enjoyed Celeste's written admonishments to Sean's entries and his and her impressions on the events of their marriage where the truth probably lies somewhere in between their one-sided versions. Sean's witty recounts of caring for Harry were very entertaining. I enjoyed Rebecca Campbell's novel on the trials and triumphs of married life and commitment. ****

Reviewed by Barbara Stabler for Huntress Reviews.

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Interesting portrayal of a troubled marriage

I thought the title of this book was pretty dull, but the concept was interesting. Wife Celeste comes across husband Sean's journal on his hard drive and starts reading it. Her therapist encourages her to start a "counter-journal" where she records her reactions to Sean's musings. Eventually, Sean upgrades their operating system and she's not able to read his diary anymore, but she keeps working on her own.

Sean and Celeste are under the strain of raising a baby; Celeste elected to stay at her job, while Sean is a stay-at-home dad. Sean's eye starts to wander in his "yummy mummy" playgroup, and Celeste, acting out a bit after she reads about his attraction to one of the mommies, strikes up a dalliance with her friend's boyfriend.

The characters definitely did not behave sympathetically at all times. However, they felt real to me (Sean more so than Celeste). The chapters from Sean's point of view were particularly well written. Celeste was selfish but up-front about it. If the whole book had been written from Celeste's perspective, it might not have been worth reading. But Sean's sections were engaging and compelling. It almost felt like the book was written by 2 different people...which it may have been. In her acknowledgments, the author thanked her husband, also a writer, for contributing his "wit and wisdom" to the Sean chapters.

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?Brutally honest and wonderfully witty, The Marriage Diaries had me laughing and crying?often at the same time.?
?Gemma Townley, author of Little White Lies

Meet Sean and Celeste?living proof that opposites attract.

Savvy and sophisticated Celeste is a top clothing buyer in London; Sean is a scruffy, eccentric writer turned stay-at-home dad who, courtesy of the couple?s toddler, has mastered the art of changing stinky diapers. Needing to be seen (if only by himself) as more than just a drool-spattered Mr. Mom, Sean begins a hilarious journal detailing the ridiculous, wondrous, and sometimes salacious aspects of being a househusband?including such juicy tidbits as his growing attraction to the beautiful Uma Thursday, a single mother from his son?s play group.

But when Celeste stumbles upon Sean?s secret entries, she?s dismayed to discover she?s opened a Pandora?s box on her marriage. Hardly the kind of girl to take a straying husband lying down, she devises a scheme of her own, and the twin strands of the will-they-won?t-they plot become ever more entangled. Can love trump lust? Can fidelity conquer passion? Or will the destructive forces of untrammeled desire wreck what may just be, for all its faults, the perfect marriage?

With sparkling wit and characters who leap off the page, Rebecca Campbell has crafted a brilliant and utterly winning novel about vows, straying, and finding a way home.

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