While some couples enjoy satisfying old-school romantic unions, a significant number are living in "semi-happy marriages" in which they are neither miserable nor fulfilled. Their persistent, troubling, and often silent question: Is this all there is? Despite the prevalence of the semi-happy marriage, especially among spouses in their 30s, 40, and 50s, this hidden state of marriage has not been revealed and analyzed-until now. Marriage Confidential digs beneath the surface and the cover stories to understand why marriages end up this way. A half-century after Betty Friedan first wrote of the unhappy housewife, Haag similarly dissects the sources of discontent in the modern marriage. While some of that melancholy results from common life stresses, some of it is a product of the cultural moment in which we find ourselves-the post-romantic age-and the new normals of childrearing, marital habitats, married social life, and sex. Blending autobiographical detail, cultural history, and revelatory stories from the frontlines, as well as her own research adventures -including joining an online affair-finding site and posting a personal in the New York Review of Books-Haag has crafted the next "big think book" on marriage, a beautifully-written, mesmerizing, humorous, and sometimes salacious read. In addition to unraveling the sources of post-romantic discontent, Haag discovers that marriage is being quietly revolutionized by mavericks who are going beyond the old traditional and romantic models to create unique relationships that work for them. These are ostensibly traditional marriages-but with a twist.

Post-romantic marriage pioneers, these spouses are consciously and often secretly reworking the old scripts with a spirit of adventure and fun. Though their methods wouldn't work for everyone, these marriages will expand the reader's imagination, and offer inspiration to those who want more than the semi-happy status quo. Marriage Confidential will jump start lively conversations about marriage, between husbands and wives, and between friends, and it will reassure semi-happy marriages that they are not alone.