A Marriage Made in Heaven--

Costarring Erma and Bill, the author's ( Motherhood ) 12th book tops her previous hits as it traces the couple's lives since they wed in 1949. Told in Bombeck's comic, no-nonsense style, the story combines suspense, pathos and high humor as the years bring the inevitable moments of ``for better and for worse.'' One of the funniest, and most sobering episodes occurs during the 1960s when the couple's children turn into hippies and at the same time Betty Friedan announces, in Brombeck's paraphrase, that ``The roles for which our mothers had groomed us--taking care of a husband and family--were wrong.'' Not long after that, Bombeck (who early in her marriage had responded to her husband's singsong ``Ring-around-the-collar'' with a withering ``So why don't you wash your crummy neck'') got a job as a ``housewife-columnist'' at a suburban weekly newspaper earning ``three bucks a column.'' Though she has managed to combine a spectacular career with a successful family life, Bombeck makes clear that having it all means giving one's all. 500,000 first printing; $350,000 ad/promo . (Sept.)