I thought this was a technically lovely book. It is arranged in essays talking about her divorce. The author is a very good poet, and I enjoyed her viral poem Good Bones. That is why I picked this up at the library.
One thing that leapt out at me was the constant admonition from the author about how “this isn’t for you” and “reader, I’m not telling you this” and so on, ad nauseum. I felt like I was being named a voyeur for wanting to know the intricacies of the divorce she chose to WRITE A BOOK about! That really annoyed me and took a lot from my enjoyment of the book.
Having been through a divorce, I could relate to many of her feelings. Her ex-husband sounds like a jerk, but don’t all ex-spouses from the view of the wronged party? I felt her writing was a little myopic in that sense, and does not really address her role in the breakdown of their marriage. I got a sense of her martyrdom where she refers to herself as “the staff”. Her husband comes off as a one-dimensional hater who is jealous of her success as a writer and discounts that as “real work”. He resents the travel required to promote her books SOLELY because he has to manage the household and the children? I imagine there was more to it than that.
What I did like about the book is the overarching theme of coming to terms with herself as a single person in the world, not as wife/mom, but as a woman. We read about her therapy (but not all of it, bc some of WAS NOT FOR YOU READER), her talks with friends and family, her own musings on what happens now, etc. I think any person can relate to the question of “how do I navigate the world when I’m not who I thought I was”. I know I struggled with that question after my own divorce.
Overall, it was a good read for a melancholy afternoon. I’m not sure I want to read more of her non-poetry work, based on the caginess here, but I’m not sorry I picked it up.
The Amy Experience 
I read it also and feel similar about it!
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