Wedding Cake for Breakfast: Essays on the Unforgettable First Year of Marriage

This sweet-tempered essay collection aims to reveal the great truths and surprises of the first year of marriage, setting the wives firmly at the center of that experience. It manages some humor and charm and a few dashes of pathos, but the majority of its conclusions are uninspired. The writing is weighted heavily toward the gushy, and many of the essays spend a great deal of time wandering through the courtship and the wedding before getting to what is meant to be the important part. The book is admittedly most interested in the wives, and we learn a great deal about the women, but very little about the men in these partnerships. Further, though the editors express their desire that these pieces would appeal to all married women, most of the stories play directly to traditional expectations. The collection includes only one essay about a non-traditional marriage, and mentions same-sex marriage only once. Some of the essays are touching and humorous, and others provide a reassuring take on the transitions of early wifehood, but there is nothing unforgettable here. (May)