Alison A. Armstrong

This was a book I read for a book club (not my choice) As others have noted, there is a great deal of helpful information here, and there's also a lot of bad fiction writing. What's very sad to me is that this could be a very good self-help book. Alison Armstrong is an excellent speaker, with a lot of stories and relationship tips gained over years of doing research and giving seminars. I wish that she would hire a good ghostwriter and write her real stories down in support of the information given here. Having an old woman tell it all to a younger woman over the course of a few weeks doesn't really work as a way to impart information. It's hard to go back and piece together different ideas that she presents.

A relationship/romance book (a good one, anyway) should seek to show us something new within the context of something we know. If Alison Armstrong really wanted to write a good fiction book, she should have hired a ghostwriter (or several) to tease out the implications of her research and ideas. The whole book reads very much like someone sat down over the course of a month and wrote a first draft of a very thin story...and then published it.

Armstrong's points about appreciating men, seeking to understand them, and listening to them are solid and interesting. However, the main character of the story is presented as a quick study. When she begins using these ideas in her marriage, there is instant success. Suddenly, she and her husband are having long, deep conversations and a ton of good sex. Okay. That was too easy. Getting over years of conflict takes work and time. Learning new information and acting on it takes work and time. I think it would have honored the story and the information a lot more if there had been more conflict, more work, more time, and also more real humor. Characters in this story smile far too often over the smallest things, use weird expressions like "Silly Billy", and one of them even whistles I'm Popeye the Sailor Man when he's happy (please, no). For a story about romance/relationships, it felt very removed from the realities of life, making it difficult to give credence to the ideas presented.

In the realm of romance/relationship fiction, there's so much that can be done. But it's not done here. Armstrong has a lot of truth to convey, and I wish she would revamp these ideas as a self-help book.… (altro)